In January, Meta replaced its fact-checking and content-removal program with a crowdsourced moderation system inspired by X’s Community Notes. This new approach has shown promising results in its initial months. Although Meta retained the name “Community Notes” and used X’s open-source code, it made modifications to fit its platform.
Meta had faced public scrutiny for removing content that was later found not to violate terms or was more accurate than initially thought. The introduction of Community Notes aimed to reduce censorship and provide high-quality context for information on the site.
The results were notable: Meta halved its enforcement mistakes—content wrongly removed—in the United States from Q4 2024 to the end of Q1 2025. While this reduction is not solely attributed to Community Notes, as Meta also audited and disabled overly aggressive automated systems, it contributed to more lenient content handling. According to Meta, requiring more confidence that content violates policies before removal was a key factor in reducing mistakes.
Not all findings were positive; Facebook saw slight increases in bullying, harassment (from 0.07% to 0.08%), and violent content (from 0.07% to about 0.09%). However, these increases are minor and do not justify reverting recent changes.
The move towards Community Notes illustrates how social media platforms can innovate in response to user concerns about moderation and misinformation. While not a complete solution, Community Notes offers a viable alternative for reducing censorship without sacrificing contextual information.
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