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Meta’s Fact-Checking Partners Say They Were ‘Blindsided’ by Decision to Axe Them
Meta Fact Checking Partners claim they were “blindsided” by the company’s decision Opt out of third party fact checking on Facebook, Instagram and Threads in favor of the Community Notes model, and some say they are now trying to figure out whether they can survive the hole it leaves in their funding.
“We heard the news like everyone else,” says Alan Duke, co-founder and editor-in-chief of the fact-checking site Lead Stories, which began working with Meta in 2019. “Without prior notice.”
The news that Meta no longer plans to use their services was announced in blog post by Chief International Affairs Officer Joel Kaplan on Tuesday morning and an accompanying video from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. Instead, the company plans to use X-style community notes, which allow users to flag content they feel is inaccurate or requires further explanation.
Meta partners with dozens of fact-checking organizations and newsrooms around the world, 10 of which are located in the United States, where Meta’s new rules will be applied for the first time.
“We were stunned by it,” Jesse Stiller, managing editor of Meta’s fact-checking partner Check Your Fact, tells WIRED. His organization began working with Meta in 2019, and the news department employs 10 people. “This was completely unexpected and unusual for us. We didn’t know this decision was being considered until Mark deleted the video overnight.”
News organizations that have partnered with Meta to combat the spread of misinformation on the platform since 2016 are struggling to figure out how the change will affect them.
“We have no idea what the future of the website will look like,” Stiller says.
Duke says Lead Stories has a diverse revenue stream and most of its operations are outside the US, but he says they will still be impacted by the decision. “The most painful part of this is the loss of some very good, experienced journalists who will no longer be paid to investigate false claims found on meta platforms,” Duke says.
For others, the financial consequences are even more dire. One editor at a US fact-checking organization that works with Mehta, who was not authorized to speak on the record, told WIRED that Mehta’s decision will “ultimately wear us down.”
Meta did not respond to requests for comment on its partners’ allegations or the financial impact its decision will have on some organizations.
“Meta owed the fact-checkers nothing, but it knows that by ending this partnership, it is removing a very important source of funding for the ecosystem worldwide,” says Alexios Mantzarlis, who helped establish the first partnership between fact-checkers and Facebook between 2015 and 2019 – Director of the International Fact-Checking Network.
Meta’s partners were also outraged by Zuckerberg’s assertion that fact checkers had become too biased.
It’s disappointing to hear Mark Zuckerberg accuse organizations participating in Meta, a third-party fact-checking program in the US, of being “too politically biased,” Duke said. “Let me check this out. Lead Stories follows the highest standards of journalism and ethics required by the International Fact-Checking Network’s code of principles. We check the facts without paying attention to where on the political spectrum the false statement appears.”
2025-01-07 18:20:32