Fact-checkers face a limbo after Meta’s policy shift

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement on January 7 about phasing out fact-checkers in favour of crowdsourced “Community Notes” has left Indian fact-checking organisations uncertain about their future, despite assurances that international partnerships remain unaffected for now.

“These words from Meta mean nothing. They had contracts with American fact-checkers until December 2025 or January 2026 and those are ending in March this year,” said one fact-checker, citing statements made at the monthly global International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) meeting on January 8.

In a video, Zuckerberg said that after Donald Trump’s election in 2016, the “legacy media” “constantly” wrote about how “misinformation is a threat to democracy.” He claimed Meta, then Facebook, tried to address it “without becoming the arbiters of truth” but fact-checkers “have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they created”. “Getting rid” of fact-checkers would “start with the US”, he said.

His claims contradict Meta’s own data. The company’s third-party fact-checking network page states “we know this program is working and people find value in the warning screens we apply to content after a fact-checking partner has rated it”.

While Meta emailed its Indian third-party fact-checking partners on January 7, at the same time as the video was posted, stating there would be “no impact on international third party fact checking coverage, or those 2025 contracts”, fact-checkers remain sceptical given the company can terminate contracts with one month’s notice.

The announcement could significantly affect India’s media landscape, where eleven organisations currently partner with Meta through its third-party fact-checking network (3PFCN), launched in December 2016. For some fact-checkers, Meta partnerships account for over half their revenue.

“It will be a big hole, if it happens,” said one fact-checker, explaining that while many organisations also rely on grants and training programmes, “operations may have to be scaled down and, in the process, jobs may be lost.”

The IFCN’s “State of the Fact-Checkers Report 2023” states that for IFCN signatories that are a part of Meta’s 3PFC programme, Meta’s financial support is the leading source of income. IFCN signatory status is required to be considered for 3PFCN.

The Poynter Institute, which houses the international fact checkers network (IFCN), wrote an open letter to Zuckerberg on January 10 stating how the move “threatens to undo nearly a decade of progress in promoting accurate information online.” Five Indian fact-checkers - Boom, Factly, Newschecker, Telugu Post, and The Logical Indian - have signed the letter.

Under the current system, potentially false content is identified through user reports, Meta’s signals across Facebook, Instagram and Threads, or fact-checkers’ own monitoring. Partners “rate” the content, which Meta then labels as “false,” “altered,” “partly false” or “missing context,” with reduced distribution for such posts, and loss of ability to monetise and advertise for repeat offenders.

Contrary to Zuckerberg’s claims about censorship, fact-checkers emphasise they never had power to remove content. “Meta staff decided on how content found to be false by fact-checkers should be downranked or labelled,” the letter stated, adding that suggestions to make labelling less intrusive were never implemented.

The impact could be particularly severe in India’s healthcare context. “Everybody from cricketers to film stars is giving cures for diabetes and cancer. Those need to be fact checked,” one fact-checker said, highlighting that health-related misinformation runs rampant due to low healthcare and doctor penetration.

Critics argue community notes would be ineffective in India. “Community Notes are not very effective. Meta will have to build them from scratch,” said one fact-checker, warning that the system could be “gamed by ideologically driven people, political parties and their IT cells.”

“Even on X, Community Notes actually link out to the fact checks done by fact checkers. Will people who write community notes do the work required to do a fact check if there is no accountability?” another fact-checker questioned.

The uncertainty extends to initiatives like India’s Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA), which receives Meta support for its Deepfakes Analysis Unit launched in February 2024. The impact of Zuckerberg’s announcement on this programme remains unclear.

Currently, 16 fact-checkers from India are IFCN signatories, with ten serving as 3PFCN partners. To maintain IFCN signatory status, fact-checkers must demonstrate objectivity, transparency, and avoid political affiliations or advocacy.

“In a fact check, unlike in traditional reporting, there is no reliance on anonymous sources or implicit trust/brand factor,” explained one fact-checker, adding that they rarely publish fact checks about the Indian Army because officers don’t go on record.

A Meta spokesperson said: “We are ending our third-party fact checking program, and over the next couple of months we’ll phase in a more comprehensive Community Notes system, in the US. There are no changes to other countries at this time.”

Other fact-checkers said the programme was arbitrary and lacked adequate transparency to begin with. “Zuckerberg’s announcement is good news as Meta can no longer hide behind the facade that they were serious about dealing with the issue of misinformation,” said Pratik Sinha, the co-founder of AltNews, which has deliberately stayed outside of the IFCN.

“This whole process has ended as arbitrarily as it was started and run. Meta neither gave any data about the efficacy of the programme, nor did the fact checking partners ask for it,” he added.

Sinha said that if Meta was truly amplifying fact-checks, its Indian partners would be better known and visible, raising questions about the programme’s effectiveness.