Meta’s fact-checking partners say they were “blindsided” by the company’s decision ditch third party fact checking on Facebook, Instagram and Threads in favor of the Community Notes model, and some say they are now trying to figure out whether they can survive the funding hole it is causing.
“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 “without notice.”
The news that Meta no longer plans to utilize their services was announced in blog post by Global Affairs Director Joel Kaplan on Tuesday morning and an accompanying video from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Instead, the company plans to rely on X-style social notes, which allow users to flag content they think is misleading or requires further explanation.
Meta works with dozens of fact-checking organizations and newsrooms around the world, 10 of which are based in the US, where the recent Meta rules will be applied for the first time.
“We were surprised by this,” Jesse Stiller, editor-in-chief of Meta, a fact-checking partner of Check Your Fact, tells WIRED. His organization started cooperation with Meta in 2019 and 10 people work in the editorial office. “It was completely unexpected and out of place. “We didn’t know this decision was being considered until Mark dropped the video overnight.”
News organizations that have worked with Meta since 2016 to combat the spread of misinformation on the platform are trying to figure out how the change will impact them.
“We have no idea what the future of the website will look like,” Stiller says.
Duke says Lead Stories had diversified revenue streams and did most of its business outside the United States, but says it will still be impacted by the decision. “The most painful part of this situation is the loss of some very good, experienced journalists who will no longer be paid to investigate false claims found on Meta platforms,” Duke says.
For others, the financial consequences are even more dire. One editor at a U.S. fact-checking organization that works with Metas, who was not authorized to speak on the record, told WIRED that Meta’s decision “will ultimately exhaust us.”
Meta did not respond to a request for comment on its partners’ allegations or the financial impact its decision will have on certain organizations.
“Meta owed fact checkers nothing, but it knows that by withdrawing this partnership it is removing a very significant source of funding for the global ecosystem,” says Alexios Mantzarlis, who helped establish the first partnerships between fact checkers and Facebook in 2015, and in 2019 as director of the International Fact-Checking Network.
Meta Partners was also angered by Zuckerberg’s claim that fact-checkers have become too biased.
Duke says it’s disappointing that Mark Zuckerberg accuses organizations participating in Meta’s third-party US fact-checking program of being “too politically biased.” “Let me check it out. Lead Stories adheres to the highest standards of journalism and ethics required by the International Fact-Checking Network’s code of principles. We fact-check no matter where on the political spectrum a false claim comes from.”