Meta has officially begun testing its new Community Notes feature across Facebook, Instagram, and Threads in the United States. This move marks the beginning of Meta’s transition away from its third-party fact-checking program, a decision the company first announced in January 2025.
Community Notes is a crowdsourced context tool that allows eligible users to add brief notes—limited to 500 characters with a source link—to posts that may benefit from additional explanation or perspective. The system is modeled after a similar feature already in use on X, and Meta says the goal is to provide a less biased, more collaborative approach to content moderation.
Initially, the program will include a limited number of contributors selected at random from a pool of around 200,000 applicants. These users must meet eligibility criteria such as being over 18, having an account in good standing for at least six months, and enabling either two-factor authentication or verifying their phone number.
Meta has emphasized that the Community Notes rollout will be deliberate and cautious. For now, the notes created by contributors will not be visible to the public as the platform works to internally test the system’s functionality. Contributors will remain anonymous to encourage impartiality, and the system will initially support six languages commonly spoken in the U.S., including English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French, and Portuguese.
Unlike traditional fact-checking, Community Notes will not reduce the visibility or distribution of posts, and contributors cannot submit notes on advertisements. They will be allowed to add context to posts from Meta, political figures, and public accounts.
Importantly, Meta has stated that notes will only appear publicly if contributors with differing perspectives agree that the context is helpful. The underlying system will be powered by an open-source algorithm inspired by X, designed to prioritize balance across ideological divides.
Once Community Notes is fully operational and proven effective in testing, Meta plans to end third-party fact-checking in the U.S. entirely. Existing third-party labels will no longer be applied, although former fact-checkers are welcome to participate as contributors in the new system. Outside the U.S., the fact-checking program will remain in place for the time being.
Meta describes this shift as an effort to build the system “in the open,” learning from contributors and refining the process based on real-world use.
For businesses and content creators, this change signals a notable shift in how content is moderated and understood. While it removes the direct consequences of fact-checking labels, it also places greater emphasis on transparent, well-sourced content. As Community Notes evolves, businesses may want to stay informed about how user-generated context could shape public perception and engagement across Meta’s platforms.