Several of Meta’s third-party fact-checkers were blindsided by the company’s announcement Tuesday morning. Just weeks earlier, they had discussed renewing their contracts for 2025 with Meta officials.
A group of these organizations quickly organized a conference call. They needed to make sense of the sudden termination of Meta's U.S.-based fact-checking program.
Alan Duke, editor in chief of Lead Stories, received the news in an email. Meta informed him that his contract would end around March 1.
The timing was shocking. Just two weeks prior, Duke had signed a yearlong contract with Meta.
Meta’s fact-checking program paid groups like FactCheck.org and PolitiFact per published fact-check. PolitiFact disclosed that more than 5% of its revenue came from the partnership.
Lead Stories, employing 80 people globally, has diversified its work. Many of its fact-checkers focus on languages like Hungarian, Korean, and Ukrainian. “We now do more work for ByteDance than Meta,” said Duke.
All ten of Meta’s fact-checking partners will lose their funding. They’re still figuring out what this means for their future.
“It’s a good mission that’s coming to an end,” said Neil Brown, president of the Poynter Institute, which oversees PolitiFact.
Back in 2016, after Facebook faced backlash for fake news during Trump’s election, Mark Zuckerberg apologized. He promised action and partnerships with respected fact-checkers.
Eight years later, Zuckerberg’s tone has changed. On Tuesday, he announced Meta would end the fact-checking program, citing “too much censorship” and a return to free expression.