Your Facebook and Instagram feeds are about to change and it has nothing to do with the algorithm
Meta says it is taking its time to get this right. Currently, about 200,000 people in the US have signed up to contribute across Facebook, Instagram and Threads and the waitlist is still open for anyone interested.
To join in, contributors need to be over 18, have an account that’s been active for at least 6 months, and be in good standing. They’ll also need either a verified phone number or to have two-factor authentication set up for added security.
You will find Community Notes on Instagram, Facebook and Threads. | Image credit – Meta
If you are curious about how Community Notes will work, Meta says it is going to be pretty similar to what you see on Elon Musk’s platform X, where users can add extra context to posts. And actually, at first, Meta will base its rating system on X’s open-source algorithm, so it will indeed be almost the same.
You will have the option to write a Community Note. | Image credit – Meta
Meta won’t be the one deciding what gets rated or written – that’s up to the community. And in an attempt to keep things fair and balanced, notes won’t go live unless people with differing views agree it’s helpful. It’s not about just getting a majority vote; contributors from all sides have to think the note adds value.
Each note will be limited to 500 characters and must include a link to back up the claim. Plus, Notes won’t show who wrote them, as Meta wants the focus to be on the value of the context, not the author.
To begin with, the Community Notes feature will be available in six widely spoken languages in the US, including English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French and Portuguese. Contributors won’t be able to submit notes on ads, but they can add context to pretty much any other content, like posts from Meta, politicians and other public figures.
We expect Community Notes to be less biased than the third party fact checking program it replaces, and to operate at a greater scale when it is fully up and running. When we launched the fact checking program in 2016, we were clear that we didn’t want to be the arbiters of truth and believed that turning to expert fact checking organizations was the best solution available. But that’s not how it played out, particularly in the United States. Experts, like everyone else, have their own political biases and perspectives. This showed up in the choices some made about what to fact check and how.
– Meta, March 2025
Meta eventually wants to bring Community Notes to users worldwide, but that won’t happen right away. Until the feature expands to other countries, the existing third-party fact-checking program will stay in place for those regions.
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