EXCLUSIVE: Meta's farewell to fact-checking; 6 recommendations for brands

Beverley Houston, director at Be-cause Integrated Communications says Meta’s decision to end third-party fact-checking on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads is bad news for brands (image supplied)

At this stage, the replacement of third-party fact-checking with Community Notes will only affect accounts based in the US. Regardless, the impact of the change in the US will ripple across the platform worldwide.

For years now, businesses have relied on social media platforms to offer a safe, controlled space to build their brands, connect directly with customers, and roll out targeted advertising.

With the question of what and who to trust now hanging over every digital encounter, brands may need to rethink their social media strategies – with a focus on maintaining a positive reputation.

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Bad news for brands

Over the next few months, Meta will phase in a ‘Community Notes’ system, which relies on users to flag potentially misleading content and add notes where more context is required.

As part of this, Meta is also re-writing content policies and removing topic restrictions on everything from gender to immigration.

According to Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, the idea is to ‘restore free expression’ – which is another way of saying they’re washing their hands of any responsibility towards managing misinformation.

If these platforms were purely used for sharing opinions – and if all users were on the same page about the status of these opinions as non-factual – it might not be an issue.

But with over three billion daily active users, a huge percentage of whom use social media as a search engine and primary news source, the stakes are incredibly high.

The anticipated result is a chaotic online environment, rife with harmful content, hate speech, and genuine fake news.

This is bad news for brands, who may be at risk of having misleading information spread about them – unchecked and unchallenged.

How can brands adapt to the new social status quo?

Trust – building and maintaining it – is going to be the most important factor for brands to bake into their revised social media strategies moving forward.

Our recommendations are to:

1. Prioritise direct engagement with target audiences: Brands need to capitalise on opportunities for direct interactions with their customers, where they can remain in relative control of their positioning and narrative.

   This can include setting up community groups that can be moderated, creating dedicated forums for discussion, and keeping communication channels open – whether via comments or DMs.

2. Invest in community management: To combat potential misinformation, community management may require an entire team of dedicated, active individuals who can respond to comments and questions in real time, flag misleading content, and add context where needed.

   Community managers will also play a critical role in supporting brand positioning by reinforcing brand values and key messaging. Having a human available to respond to queries will also likely be a gamechanger when it comes to building trust.

3. Enable social listening and monitoring tools: Staying on top of brand mentions will be vital when it comes to combatting disinformation, negative narratives, and any threats to your reputation.
   

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   These tools will also give your community management teams a leg up, an opportunity to respond and get ahead of any harmful comments before they go viral.

4. Contemplate crisis comms scenarios: News about your brand’s mistakes, poor service, and bad business practices – true or not – can spread like wildfire on social media.

   With no third-party interventions, the potential for a crisis comms blowup is more pressing than ever. Brands need to revise their crisis comms templates and ensure they are prepared for every possible scenario – including a social media response plan to quell the spread of misinformation.

5. Prepare for a changing advertising landscape: The change in X’s fact-checking policies resulted in a 60% decrease in ad revenue for the platform.

   As the content became more toxic and unpredictable, many brands stopped running ads to avoid negative associations. This could be the case for Meta too.

6. Keep an eye out for the next big thing: Users with moral qualms about Meta’s new direction may decide to leave the platform and find a new home for their online activity.

   Following Elon Musk's decision to reduce content moderation on X (among other things), the decentralised alternative Bluesky – essentially a Twitter reincarnation, but without the billionaire overlord – has seen a huge increase in new users.

   Something similar may happen across Meta’s platforms. Brands need to keep tabs on where their target audience is spending their virtual time, in case they need to expand their online presence (or double down on where they are).

The most important thing businesses can do is to live by its values and principles.

At Be-cause, we’ve always found that consumers are loyal to brands they perceive as authentic and transparent – especially during difficult times.

The best way to demonstrate this is by walking the talk, whether that means starting from scratch and building a following on a new social platform, or doing the work to create a safe space on existing platforms.

How your brand responds now, sets the tone for how you are perceived moving forward. Our advice? Make the decision that benefits your brand in the long term.