Meta has begun testing its crowd-sourced Community Notes feature across 16 Latin American countries, more than a year after rolling out the scheme in the US and dropping its US fact-checking partnerships. The move has alarmed fact-checking organisations, who fear it signals Meta's intention to eventually phase out third-party fact-checking across the region in favour of a system many consider less effective, raising concerns about the spread of misinformation on Facebook, Instagram and Threads.

During this testing phase, contributors are being onboarded across countries including Argentina, Brazil-neighbouring states, Mexico, Venezuela and Nicaragua, but their notes will not yet be shown to users, and Meta says existing fact-checking arrangements remain unchanged for now. However, the company has indicated it will move to "fully launch" Community Notes and "transition" away from third-party fact-checking once confident the product works well. The International Fact-Checking Network and Meta's own Oversight Board have both objected, noting the programme is being tested in countries with high polarisation, disinformation networks or political instability, such as Nicaragua, Venezuela and El Salvador, which the Oversight Board had specifically warned against. Critics also point to data suggesting only 3% of debunked Instagram posts in the US received a Community Note, questioning the system's effectiveness compared with fact-checkers or X's equivalent scheme.