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Meta abandons fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram in favor of Community Notes

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Laura Normand / The Verge Facebook, Instagram, and Threads are ditching third-party fact-checkers in favor of a Community Notes program inspired by X, according to an announcement penned by Meta’s new Trump-friendly policy chief Joel Kaplan . Meta is also moving its trust and safety teams from California to Texas. “We’ve seen this approach work on X – where they empower their community to decide when posts are potentially misleading and need more context, and people across a diverse range of perspectives decide what sort of context is helpful for other users to see.” Meta said. “We think this could be a better way of achieving our original intention of providing people with information about what they’re seeing – and one that’s less prone to bias.” The Community Notes feature will first be rolled out in the US “over the next couple of months” according to Meta, and will display an unobtrusive label indicating that there is additional information available ...
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Meta’s fact-checking changes are just what Trump’s FCC head asked for

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge I have to commend Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his new policy chief Joel Kaplan on their timing. It’s not hugely surprising that, as the pair announced early today, Meta is giving up on professional third-party fact-checking . The operator of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads has been backing off moderation recently, and fact-checking has always been contentious. But it’s probably smart to do it two weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office — and nominates a Federal Communications Commission head who’s threatened the company over it. Trump’s FCC chairman pick (and current FCC commissioner), Brendan Carr, is a self-identified free speech defender with a creative interpretation of the First Amendment. In mid-November, as part of a flurry of lightly menacing missives to various entities, Carr sent a letter to Meta, Apple, Google, and Microsoft attacking the companies’ fact-checking programs. The letter was primari...
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Zuckerberg says he’s moving Meta moderators to Texas because California seems too ‘biased’

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge; Getty Images As part of Meta’s sweeping changes to content moderation announced today, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says that the company will also be moving its content moderation teams from California to Texas to “help remove the concern that biased employees are overly censoring content,” he wrote on Threads . “We’re going to move our trust and safety and content moderation teams out of California, and our US-based content review is going to be based in Texas,” Zuckerberg says in a video about the changes . “As we work to promote free expression, I think that it will help us build trust to do this work in places where there’s less concern about the bias of our teams.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck) Meta’s decision to move its content moderation teams to Texas follows Elon Musk bringing X and SpaceX to the state , though Musk’s move was driven in part by h...
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The fallout of Meta’s content moderation overhaul

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Image: Cath Virginia / The Verge, Getty Images Meta is making sweeping changes to its moderation policies ahead of Trump’s inauguration. Meta is making sweeping changes to its content moderation policies , including abandoning third-party fact checks in favor of X’s crowd-sourced “Community Notes” approach and loosening restrictions on topics like immigration and gender identity. Under the updated Hateful Conduct policy, for example, calling gay and trans people “mentally ill” is now allowed, while an explicit ban on referring to women as “household objects” has been removed . Policy chief Joel Kaplan says that in pursuit of “More Speech and Fewer Mistakes,” Meta will focus more on preventing over-enforcement of its content policies and less on mediating potentially harmful — but technically legal — discussions on its platform. The company is also ending its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. This all comes just two weeks before President-elect Don...
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Social networking alternatives for the Meta- and Musk-averse

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Image: Alex Parkin / The Verge As I write this, there are a lot of social network users who are wondering if they should look for a new home. Over at X, Elon Musk has essentially become part of the incoming Trump administration , while various changes have made the formerly popular social network a dark and forbidding forest for many of its former inhabitants. Meanwhile, Meta’s announcement that it was abandoning third-party fact-checkers and moving its trust and safety teams from California to Texas is making some Facebook and Instagram members nervous. So nervous, in fact, that while we previously included Meta’s Threads social network in this article as a possible alternative to X, we’ve pulled it — at least for now. So, if you’re no longer feeling safe at your current social network, where do you go? We’ve been looking into the various possibilities and have put together what is admittedly an incomplete list of some of the current alternatives to X, F...
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Instagram teases AI editing tools that will completely reimagine your videos

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The puppet influencers are coming...in 2025. | Image: The Verge / Adam Mosseri Instagram is planning to introduce a generative AI editing feature next year that will allow users to “change nearly any aspect of your videos.” The tech is powered by Meta’s Movie Gen AI model according to a teaser posted by Instagram head Adam Mosseri , and aims to provide creators with more tools to help transform their content and bring their ideas to life without extensive video editing or manipulation skills. Mosseri says the feature can make adjustments using a “simple text prompt.” The announcement video includes previews of early research AI models that change Mosseri’s outfit, background environments, and even his overall appearance — in one scene transforming him into a felt puppet. Other changes are more subtle, such as adding new objects to the existing background or a gold chain around Mosseri’s neck without altering the rest of his clothing. View this ...
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Instagram will let you recap 2024 with a collage for your story

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Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge Instagram will now let you showcase your favorite moments from 2024 by adding a collage to your story. The new feature, which is only available through the first week of January, lets you combine a bunch of pictures from throughout the year and share them with friends. You can currently only create collage-like stories by adding a photo to your story, resizing it, moving it around the screen, and then adding more images as stickers. Instagram’s layout feature also lets you add multiple photos to a story, but they only appear in a grid format. Image: Instagram Instagram is rolling out some other temporary features as well, including end-of-year-themed “Add Yours” templates , allowing your friends to reply to your story with one of their own. There are also new “New Year” and “Countdown” text effects, holiday chat themes for DMs, as well as secret phrases, such as “happy New Year,” in notes and DMs ...
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