Meta's fact-checking partners claim they were “blindsided” by the company's decision Abandon third-party fact-checking on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads The community notes favor of the model, and some say they are now struggling to figure out whether they can survive the looming gap in their funding.
“We heard the news just like everyone else,” says Alan Duke, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the fact-checking site Lead Stories, which began working with Meta in 2019. “No advance notice.”
The news that Meta was no longer planning to use their services was announced A blog post by Joel Kaplan, Chief Global Affairs Officer Tuesday morning, along with a video from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Instead, the company plans to rely on X-style community notes, which allow users to flag content they think is incorrect or needs further clarification.
meta Partnership with dozens of fact-checking organizations and newsrooms around the world, 10 of which are located in the US, where Meta's new rules will be implemented first.
“We were blown away by this,” Jesse Stiller, managing editor of meta fact-checking partner Check Your Facts, told WIRED. His organization began working with Meta in 2019 and employs 10 people in its newsroom. “It was completely unexpected and out of the area left for us. “We had no idea this decision was being considered until Mark removed the video overnight.”
News organizations that have partnered with Meta since 2016 to combat the spread of disinformation on the platform are trying to figure out how this change will impact them.
“We don't know what the future of the website will be going forward,” says Stiller.
Duke says Lead Stories has a diverse revenue stream and most of its operations are outside the US, but claims the decision will still have an impact on them. Duke says, “The most painful part of this is losing some very good, experienced journalists who will no longer be paid to research the false claims found on the Meta platform.”
For others the financial implications are even more serious. An editor at a US-based fact-checking organization that works with Meta, who was not authorized to speak on the record, told WIRED that Meta's decision “will ultimately kill us.”
Meta did not respond to a request to comment on its partners' allegations or the financial impact its decision could have on certain organizations.
“Meta doesn’t owe fact-checkers anything, but it knows that by pulling this partnership it is removing a very important source of funding for the ecosystem globally,” says Alexios Mantzarlis, who founded Fact Check. -Helped establish the first partnership between investigators and Facebook. 2015 and 2019 as Director of the International Fact Checking Network.
Meta's partners were also upset by Zuckerberg's accusation that fact-checkers have become too biased.
According to Duke, Mark Zuckerberg's accusation of organizations in Meta's US third-party fact-checking program being “too politically biased” is disappointing. “Let me fact-check it. Lead Stories adheres to the highest standards of journalism and ethics required by the International Fact-Checking Network Code of Principles. “We investigate the facts regardless of where in the political spectrum a false claim comes from.”