The fact-checking network will lose a major source of revenue and may even close up shop after Facebook’s parent company Meta announced it will terminate their contracts and move to a system closer to X’s Community Notes.
“We don’t have much time left. At this rate, we’re done in a few months,” Check Your Fact managing editor Jesse Stiller told Fox News Digital.
“We didn’t agree on this. This was totally unexpected for us. We didn’t know this decision was being considered until Mark dropped the video overnight. We don’t know what the future looks like for this website going forward,” he added.
On January 7, 2025, Meta revealed that it would end its fact-checking program and propose some content moderation policies to “restore free speech” on all of its platforms, including Facebook and Instagram.
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Fact-checkers told Fox News Digital that Meta’s decision to end its fact-checking program will have a significant economic impact on their businesses. (NICOLAS TUCAT/AFP via Getty Images)
Prior to the announcement, Meta has repeatedly emphasized that they are committed to supporting the fact-checking industry in the long term to tackle “disinformation” online.
In an April 2022 blog post, Meta said it has built “the largest global fact-checking network of any platform” and has contributed more than $100 million to fact-checking programs since 2016.
Meta did not respond when asked how much money it gave to third-party fact-checkers before announcing the end of the program in early January 2025.
According to the company’s website, Meta began prioritizing “additional support and resources” for fact-checkers in early 2020 to combat “false information.”
As part of this initiative, Meta launched a $1 million emergency grant program in partnership with the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) to address information about the COVID-19 pandemic.
IFCN created the CoronaVirusFacts Alliance, where nearly 100 fact-checking organizations in more than 70 countries have produced more than 11,000 facts about COVID-19 in 40 languages. The organization’s seven fact-checking projects focus on the “false knowledge” of assertion.
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Meta’s announcement to restore “free speech” comes after years of scrutiny against the company’s fact-checking and content moderation practices. (Nicolas TUCAT/AFP/Jason Henry/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In August, Zuckerberg acknowledged that the Biden White House had pressured Meta to process health data during the violence.
Zuckerberg told podcast host Joe Rogan in January that members of the Biden administration would “shout” and “curse” at his staff, demanding that they release information, particularly during the release of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Meta later awarded the IFCN a $1 million “Climate Misinformation Grant.” The grant, in part, provided funding to organizations working to combat “climate disinformation” and supported cooperation between fact-checkers and “climate experts.”
The company also provided funds to fact-checkers to “increase their capacity to promote reliable information” ahead of the 2022 elections in various countries, including the US, Australia, France and India.
In the United States, Meta has worked with third-party fact-checkers: AFP – Hub, Check Your Fact, Factcheck.org, Lead Stories, PolitiFact, Science Feedback, Reuters Fact Check, TelevisaUnivision, The Dispatch and USA Today.
All 10 partners are expected to lose their money. It is not clear when Meta’s changes will affect overseas fact-checkers.
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Meta and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has spoken extensively about the pressure he faces from the government, particularly the Biden administration, to censor content on their behalf. (The Joe Rogan Experience)
In a recent interview with Fox News Digital, Meta’s global CEO, Joel Kaplan, said these fact-checkers failed to be neutral.
“We went to independent, fact-checkers,” Kaplan said. “It’s become clear that there’s a lot of political bias in what they choose to look at because, basically, they start looking at whatever they see on the platform.”
Since the pivot away from third-party fact-checking, several of these fact-checking organizations with financial ties to the tech conglomerate have issued statements criticizing Zuckerberg and Meta’s claims of political bias.
Previously, these groups were often paid for each fact test published using Meta platforms and tools.
For example, PolitiFact, according to its financial disclosure, earned more than five percent of its 2024 revenue from partnerships.
PolitiFact told Fox News Digital that the agency, one of the first participants in the Meta fact-checking program, will be affected by the company’s decision to discontinue it.
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on Tuesday that his company will implement a new fact-checking system similar to the social notes on Elon Musk’s X. (Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC/Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto/Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
They also pointed Fox News Digital to comments made by Poynter Institute’s parent company, Poynter Institute President Neil Brown, who called Meta’s decision a “disappointing cop-out” that perpetuates the misunderstanding of its program.
“Facts are not censorship. Fact-checkers never censor anything. And Meta always holds the cards. It’s time to stop using hateful language and lies in defining the role of journalists and fact-checking,” said Brown.
Lead Stories, the Facebook fact-checking company that employs dozens of CNN alumni, told The New York Times that it now does most of its work at TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance. Meta was previously the main fact-checking client.
The company was shocked by Zuckerberg’s announcement, considering Lead Stories signed a new one-year contract with Meta three weeks ago. Lead Stories has admitted that it will see a drop in revenue after cutting ties with Meta—a reality that will lead to “retrenchments,” according to founder Alan Duke.
“Cutting out fact-checkers on social media is like dismantling your fire department,” he told CNN in early January.
META CALLS FOR SEVERE CHANGES TO BRING BACK FREE SPEECH ON FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM
Meta platforms are shown on a smartphone screen, with the Meta logo in the background in Chania, Greece, on August 9, 2024. (Nikolas Kokovlis/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
In a statement sent to Fox News Digital, Kristin Roberts, chief content officer of Gannet Media (USA Today’s parent company), said, “Fact-based journalism is what USA Today does.”
“We are the nation’s trusted news source because we provide unbiased and relevant content for all people. The truth and facts work for everyone – not right or left – and that is what we will continue to deliver,” he continued.
The company did not provide information on its financial relationship with Meta.
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TelevisaUnivision, Lead Stories, Factcheck.org, AFP – The Hub, Dispatch and Science Feedback did not return Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
Reuters declined to comment.
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