The latest issue of Communication & Society, authored by Ramón Salaverría, Lucas Graves and Raquel Recuero, warns against the replacement of professional fact-checkers with systems such as Community Notes. This decision, it should be recalled, was announced by Meta in January 2025. According to the authors, whereas professional fact-checking is based on standardised methodologies, verified sources and transparency regarding how each assessment is produced, Community Notes rely on the collective approval of users, aggregated by algorithms, without providing the same safeguards.
The editorial cites recent studies with mixed findings: Community Notes reduce the spread of misleading posts by around 61%, yet they continue to cite professional fact-checking sources frequently, suggesting that the two approaches are more complementary than mutually exclusive.
The authors argue that this shift does not represent a democratisation of content moderation, but rather a strategic transfer of responsibility from platforms to users.
