Threads, Meta’s microblogging service that competes with X, appears to be moving its attention away from political conversation and toward aggressively combating the spread of disinformation, particularly around the 2024 elections.
Responding to recent user complaints on fact-checking initiatives on Threads, the social media giant highlighted its engagement with fact-checking groups to combat the spread of misleading material on the site. However, the direct implementation of fact-checking in Threads is still awaiting.
In December 2023, Meta stated that its fact-checking partners will directly review and rank false information on Threads by early 2024. Meta may now only link existing fact-checks to comparable threaded material. According to recent user concerns, Threads now shows matching scores for disinformation rather than direct fact-checking, while the intended fact-checking tool is being fully implemented.
Recognizing this intermediate period, Meta told TechCrunch that the direct rating option for fact-checkers on Threads has yet to be perfected, but it will be available soon.
Threads users have reported seeing warning labels applied to posts, such as an interstitial overlaying bogus AI-generated movies and a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen. The notice expressly labels the item as “False Information” and explains why it has been discredited based on other fact-checking evaluations. Furthermore, the warning includes information on the fact-checking sources and their conclusive results.
An example fact-check on Threads addresses a video circulating in Telegram chats that seems to be from a France 24 broadcast, but which fact-checking groups agree was AI-generated and never aired or created.
While waiting for complete fact-checking integration, Threads’ warning system tries to distinguish itself from X, whose fact-checking is heavily reliant on audience involvement. On X’s Community Notes platform, independent volunteers fact-check and provide extra context or corrections, while the algorithm seeks consensus from multiple views. Meanwhile, Meta’s strategy differs from X’s in that it does not intentionally promote political material on Threads or Instagram.