Meta's removal of fact-checking leads to widespread misinformation on Facebook
Meta ended its fact-checking on Facebook in January 2025. As a result, misinformation has become widespread on Facebook, according to independent news organization ProPublica.
Facebook Boosts Viral Content as It Drops Fact-Checking — ProPublica
https://www.propublica.org/article/facebook-meta-abandons-fact-checking-boosts-viral-content
As Meta gets rid of fact-checkers, misinformation is going viral | TechCrunch
https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/24/as-meta-gets-rid-of-fact-checkers-misinformation-is-going-viral/
Meta, a social networking site developed and operated by Meta, used to conduct fact-checking by an independent organization, but on January 7, 2025, Meta suddenly announced that it would end this fact-checking and move to content censorship in the form of community notes, similar to X (formerly Twitter).
Meta's Mark Zuckerberg declares 'returning to the origins of freedom of expression,' announcing the end of fact-checking functionality and a shift to a community note format - GIGAZINE
When President Donald Trump was inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States on January 20, 2025, a few hours after his inauguration, users on Facebook began spreading false information that ' the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is paying bounties for reporting illegal immigrants.'
One example is this Facebook post below. (Note that this post has since been deleted, so the post below is an archive from the Internet Archive.) The post reads, 'BREAKING: ICE will pay $750 (approximately 112,000 yen) for each illegal immigrant who is reported through their report form. The link to the form is in the comments section.'
After this post spread on the Internet, fact-checking organization
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The main reason for the spread of such misinformation is the end of fact-checking, but another reason cited is the existence of a ' performance bonus program ' that Meta revamped at the same time as the abolition of fact-checking, which pays bonuses to content creators based on the number of views and engagement of their posts. This program is invitation-only at the time of writing, but is scheduled to become widely available in 2025.
A data scientist at Meta who has worked to combat the spread of misinformation also told ProPublica that the reason inflammatory misinformation is on the rise again on Facebook could be because Meta launched its performance bonus program.
ProPublica also identified 95 Facebook pages that use misinformation to incite political division and reported them to Meta. These Facebook pages are managed by fake accounts or falsely claim to be American while posting about politics and social issues. Meta announced that it had removed 81 of the 95 reported pages. However, Meta did not provide details on whether the removed Facebook pages were eligible for the performance bonus program.
For nearly a decade, Meta has made debunking misinformation created for financial gain a top priority . Meta has a policy of not paying for content that its fact-checkers deem false , but if the company ends fact-checking, this policy will no longer be valid.
Already, 404 Media has pointed out that overseas spammers are making money using deceptive AI-generated content, such as images of emaciated people aimed at stirring emotion and interest, but this kind of content is rarely fact-checked because it doesn't make verifiable claims.
'What defenses will Meta have against commercial disinformation?' said Jeff Allen, chief research officer at the nonprofit Integrity Institute and a former Meta data scientist. 'Facebook's existing systems are designed to amplify obscene and provocative content.'
However, according to the administrator of the Facebook account 'NO Filter Seeking Truth,' which posted the ICE misinformation, the account has been penalized by Meta for spreading misinformation multiple times in the past and is therefore ineligible for the performance bonus program. However, the administrator of NO Filter Seeking Truth told ProPublica that Facebook's ending of fact-checking is 'great.'
In response to ProPublica's report, Meta spokesperson Tracy Clayton said, 'Meta's community standards and content moderation team is still active and is working to ensure that we do not 'over-enforce the rules' by inadvertently banning content.' We have not disclosed whether Facebook pages spreading misinformation, as reported by ProPublica, were subject to the performance bonus program, but we have cited academic papers that describe how effective Meta's community notes , which it introduces instead of fact-checking, are in identifying misinformation, building trust among users, and addressing bias, and we claim that Meta's policy is correct.
