Meta tests fact-check replacement in Latin America

Meta said Wednesday it had begun testing Community Notes in 16 Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, a step toward replacing the professional fact-checking program it runs with partner organizations across the region.

The crowdsourced notes system, modeled on the one used by Elon Musk's X, is designed to supplant checks carried out by accredited newsrooms and fact-checking agencies, which Meta ended in the United States last year.

Meta said it hoped the notes would become the standard way it adds context to misleading posts on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, ending the need for the fact-checking program.

The company gave no timeline for that transition, saying only that full rollout would come when it was confident the product worked.

Users in the 16 countries can sign up as contributors from Wednesday, but Meta said no notes would be visible to the public during the test and that independent fact-checking would continue unchanged in the meantime.

The list covers Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

Portuguese-speaking Brazil, the region's largest market for Meta's platforms, was left out.

The head of the world's main fact-checking network said she was "deeply concerned" by Meta's decision.

"The community notes program alone is simply not adequate when it comes to reducing the impact of harmful falsehoods on social media platforms," said Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network, of which AFP is a signatory.

The announcement lands after a run of elections that has pushed Latin America sharply toward right-wing parties.

Hard-right conservatives, including in the United States and Europe, are largely against fact-checking programs on social media, accusing them of political bias.

The new leaders in Latin America have promised hands-off regulation, modeling themselves on Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and US President Donald Trump.

They rely on social media to burnish their image and spread disinformation. In some cases, they have been accused of deploying troll armies to simulate popular support.

The pivot by Meta came while US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was on a trip to the region, visiting countries whose leaders now align with Trump administration policies.

Just days before Trump took office for a second term, Meta chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced that the company would end its US fact-checking partnerships and replace them with Community Notes.

In line with Republican views, Zuckerberg cast the shift as a return to free expression.

Testing began in the United States that March. Three weeks later the notes started appearing publicly and the US fact-checking program was shut down.

Meta said Wednesday that the Community Notes in the US now had more than 1.4 million contributors, who produced more than 50,000 posts on Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

Last September, the company pointed to a far thinner output, saying some 70,000 contributors had written 15,000 notes, only about six percent of which were published.

Meta's Oversight Board, the quasi-independent body the company funds to review its moderation decisions, warned in March that Community Notes were not an adequate replacement for professional fact-checking outside the United States.

It said a global rollout risked human rights harms in politically polarized countries and during tense elections.

AFP is among the fact-checking organizations that participate in Meta's program in Latin America and elsewhere.

Phil Chetwynd, AFP's global news director, said the news agency's verification teams in the region had delivered "outstanding work" over eight years that Meta itself had praised.

He said the two systems should not be treated as alternatives.

"Credible research suggests that community notes can only be effective when contributors can rely on accurate, ethically produced, fact-checked journalism and other high-quality sources when drafting their notes," Chetwynd said.

"Fact-checking and community notes should go hand in hand. What matters is the quality of the notes, not their quantity."