Avalon’s POV on Meta’s decision to discontinue fact-checking
In early January 2025 Meta announced that it will be discontinuing its fact-checking efforts and will instead move towards a Community Notes process, allowing users to moderate posts directly rather than via Meta’s fact-checking team.
The big question in the industry related to advertising is: Will this decision make Meta less brand safe?
The answer is nuanced—for progressive organizations that already see a lot of intense debate surrounding their mission, we can likely expect an increase in mis/dis-information and harmful rhetoric to emerge. For these organizations, it becomes even more important to evaluate Meta as an organic and paid channel, exploring other avenues to tap into.
Currently, the industry isn’t expecting a major shift in ad dollars like what we saw with X.
Given Facebook’s broad reach, member base, and performance as an ad channel, it does remain a pivotal player in the Paid Social space. With uncertainty around TikTok’s future, Meta’s position is only strengthened.
However:
- We need to monitor these updates closely to see how other advertisers will react and to see the uptick in negative content to determine what any shifts to the media mix will entail.
- It’s ever important to test into other advertising channels to identify new pockets for success, especially if Meta advertising results decrease following this announcement and if clients don’t feel comfortable investing here.
- The Community Notes effort will phase in over the course of the next few months and should be monitored on an ongoing basis.
- Note: Avalon will check in frequently with client teams to ensure we’re keeping a pulse on what clients are seeing.
- Some industry experts are curious if other channels like YouTube may seen an uptick in users/advertising if Meta users who primarily engage with Reels content shift to YouTube for video consumption.
- As fact-checking efforts end, it’ll be important for organizations to evaluate current processes for content and comment moderation. How often are your comments on posts/ads being reviewed? Who is managing this review? What is your protocol for responding to, deleting, or managing harmful messages?
Here are more resources on this topic:
Please reach out to your Avalon team if you have any questions!