Meta to bring third-party fact-checking to Threads early next year

Meta is working towards introducing third-party fact-checking to Threads, the company’s micro-blogging platform to compete with Elon Musk’s X (formerly known as Twitter). The social media giant has plans to add the feature early next year to enable third-party fact-checkers to review and rate false content on the Threads app.

The Threads app does have a fact-checking mechanism, but that’s not independent of Facebook and Instagram. This means that when Meta recognizes that its fact-checking partners have labeled something false on Facebook and Instagram, the company extends that labeling to nearly identical content on Threads.

What will change early next year is that Meta’s third-party fact-checking partners will be able to review the authenticity of posts circulating on Threads, irrespective of whether those pieces of content were previously available and labeled as false on Facebook and Instagram. There are a couple of benefits here: fact-checkers will be able to review information exclusively posted on Threads and not Facebook or Instagram. And as a result of this, users will get access to more authentic information.

As pointed out by Meta in its official blog post, users in the U.S. will be in control over how much fact-checked content they want to see on Threads. If you’re using Facebook and Instagram and are based in the U.S., you already have the control option. Users will be able to “increase, lower or maintain the default level of demotions on fact-checked content” on Threads, just like they do on Facebook and Instagram. It’s important to note that whatever control option you choose on Instagram will reflect on Threads.

Meta hasn’t given us a release date, but an early next year launch will be months ahead of the U.S. presidential elections, which is when people are more prone to fall prey to misinformation. It remains to be seen how effective Meta’s fact-checking mechanism will be on Threads, especially during election time.