Meta Begins Testing Community Notes In 16 Latin American Countries, Raising Concerns Over Replacing Professional Fact-Checks

Meta announced that it has started testing its Community Notes feature across 16 Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, a move that could eventually replace the company’s professional fact-checking partnerships in the region.

What Meta Is Testing

The crowdsourced notes system, modeled after Community Notes on Elon Musk’s X, is intended to add context to misleading posts on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. Meta said users in the 16 countries can register as contributors, but during the test no notes will be publicly visible and independent fact-checking will continue unchanged.

Countries Involved

The trial covers: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Notably, Portuguese-speaking Brazil — the region’s largest market for Meta’s platforms — is excluded from the trial.

Reactions And Concerns

Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network (of which AFP is a signatory), said she was "deeply concerned" by Meta’s decision. She argued that community notes alone are not sufficient to reduce the impact of harmful falsehoods on social platforms.

"The community notes program alone is simply not adequate when it comes to reducing the impact of harmful falsehoods on social media platforms." — Angie Drobnic Holan

Meta’s Oversight Board has warned that Community Notes are not an adequate substitute for professional fact-checking outside the United States, and cautioned that a global rollout could risk human-rights harms in politically polarized countries or during heated elections.

Phil Chetwynd, AFP’s global news director, praised the agency’s verification teams and recommended that community notes and professional fact-checking should complement each other. He emphasized that the quality of notes, not their quantity, is what matters.

Context And Background

Meta first announced it would replace US fact-checking partnerships with Community Notes shortly before the start of the new US administration’s term. Testing began in the United States in March, and within weeks notes began appearing publicly while the US fact-checking program was wound down.

Meta said the Community Notes system in the US now has more than 1.4 million contributors who have produced over 50,000 posts across Facebook, Instagram and Threads. By comparison, the company reported last September that roughly 70,000 contributors had written 15,000 notes, of which only about 6% were published.

Why This Matters

The announcement arrives amid a regional rightward political shift in Latin America and accusations that some leaders use social media to spread disinformation or deploy coordinated troll activity. Critics worry that relying primarily on crowdsourced notes in politically polarized environments may not adequately protect the public from misinformation or safeguard human rights.

What Comes Next

Meta provided no firm timeline for a full rollout, saying it will proceed when confident the product works as intended. In the meantime, independent fact-checking organizations that currently partner with Meta in Latin America say they will continue their work and urge that professional and community-based approaches be used together.

Note: Meta will monitor the test and has not yet made Community Notes visible to the public in the participating countries.