Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg has announced a change to the third-party fact-checking system. This overhaul is similar to the community note system Elon Musk employs on X formerly known as Twitter.
However, the process by which the community note system works has problems when it comes to the verification process of the users making the notes.
When a verified contributor on X makes a note on a post it is not visible to normal users yet. Other approved contributors must review the note and rate its utility.
“This is where things get tricky,” Melissa Mahtani, Executive Producer of CBS News said.
Once a note is added to a post by an approved contributor, other approved contributors must vote if the note is helpful or not.
“Other contributors need to take a look at the sourcing, the accuracy of that note, and vote on whether or not it’s helpful. If they vote that it’s helpful… the company says that an algorithm takes a look at the ideological spectrum of all those contributors who voted. If they deem that those voters are diverse, it gets published,” Mahtani explained.
In other words, if the note is voted on by an influx of people who are too uniform in political or ideological views, a possible sign of bias.
“The public never sees it,” Mahtani said.
This could be a problem in the long run because if a valid note calling out misinformation is placed on a post, but not approved by a diverse enough group of people to satisfy the algorithm, people will not know that the post was misleading.
Problems also arise with the speed at which a note is verified so that misinformation is not given the opportunity to spread without context.