On January 7, 2025, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, announced that it would end its third-party fact-checking programme, which has been its way of controlling misinformation on its platforms.
The company plans to replace it with a crowd-sourced moderation model called Community Notes, similar to the system pioneered by X (formerly Twitter).
Instead of focusing on controversial or offensive content that isn't necessarily illegal or violates community standards, its internal moderation efforts — fact-checking — will be geared towards high-severity violations such as child exploitation or terrorism.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in the announcement video, "We're going to get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms."
He said the main motivation for this change was the just-concluded 2024 presidential US elections that saw Donald Trump emerge victorious.
While Zuckerberg says the moderation system, which has existed since 2016, is a complex system that makes mistakes, Shirly Ewang, Senior Specialist at Garfield, a public strategy and advocacy firm popular for its Forward with Facts campaign, says the decision by Meta is troubling and could be problematic for Nigeria and Africa as a whole.
Nigeria already has a misinformation problem
According to Ewang, Nigeria is already a victim of misinformation. "In the 2023 elections, for example, there were lies about some candidates that fuelled religious and ethnic tensions. Fact-checkers reported over 100 false claims daily on social media.
The African Digital Democracy Observatory said disinformation was a tool used to manipulate public opinion and promote certain political candidates. This already severely affects the democratic process, something Gatefield is fighting against.
Ewang also mentioned how fake photos on social media sparked ethnic conflict in Plateau State, Nigeria.
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Per the FactCheckHub, misinformation on social media has significantly worsened the farmers-herders conflict in Nigeria by spreading false narratives that have worsened ethnic and religious tensions. Misleading reports and doctored images are often shared widely, framing localised incidents as ethnic or religious attacks, which can provoke retaliations.
Similarly, HumAngle exemplified the damage of misinformation when it fact-checked a post by Femi Fani-Kayode, which showed a man holding a burnt child.
The image posted by the Nigerian politician had the caption, "Over 50 innocent souls butchered & cut to pieces in their homes by Fulani terrorists in Igangan, Oyo state & the Palace of the trad. ruler burnt to the ground. I shed tears when I saw the videos. Can there be any greater provocation than this? How do we respond to such barbarity?"
However, the image was not from Nigeria but from the Southern Cameroon crisis.
Interestingly, such news is spread across social media despite heavy content moderation, which is why Ewang predicts that when or if it is stopped in Africa, ethnic and religious tensions in Nigeria could worsen.
In 2022, Meta was sued by Abraham Meareg for its alleged role in inciting violence and hatred in Eastern and Southern Africa in a Kenyan High Court. Meareg's father, Professor Meareg Amare, died during the Tigray war. Amare was gunned down in November 2021 after being targeted on Facebook with hateful and inaccurate posts.
This is among the many issues the company has faced or is currently facing in Kenya, from content moderation to employees who fact-check.
Why Community Notes will not work
As part of the changes to its content moderation policy, Meta is replacing fact-checking with Community Notes. According to Zuckerberg, "It is time to get back to our roots around free expression on Facebook and Instagram. The fact-checkers have been too politically biased and have eroded more trust than they have created."
However, Ewang is sure Community Notes will not work as a replacement for fact-checking. Besides the fact that misinformation would have travelled around the world before Community Notes were created, Ewang says they will only encourage conversations.
She added that it is not particularly different from someone commenting and giving their opinion on a post. While she agrees that it is an open and transparent process, it is not an effective form of content moderation.
People and governments have roles to play
In Nigeria, Meta products have millions of users. Statista puts the number of Facebook users in the country at 51 million, Instagram at 12.6 million, and WhatsApp at 51 million.
With more people possessing the power to disseminate information, Ewang believes citizens bear some responsibility in curbing misinformation. They must verify information before they spread it.
While it is not sure if or when the moderation policies will come to Nigeria, Ewang believes that since the moderation policies could promote misinformation, it could be worse for African countries that do not have well-developed democracies.
"We are trying to encourage the government to partner with civil society organisations to educate Nigerians on identifying fake news. Regulators should also try and understand what guidelines are going to guide tech platforms like Meta on their strategies for managing misinformation and harmful content in Nigeria."
She implores African governments to set clear rules for big tech to ensure that our online spaces are safe.
