Penalties for sharing fact-checked content

UPDATED

JAN 7, 2025

In the coming months, we will end the current third party fact checking program in the United States and begin moving to a community-based program called Community Notes. We are beginning with rolling out Community Notes in the US, and will continue to improve it over the course of the year before expansion to other countries (see here). During this transition period, we will stop demoting fact-checked content for people in the United States, although we may still reduce the distribution of certain hoax content whose spread creates a particularly bad user or product experience (e.g., certain commercial hoaxes). We will stop applying a strike when a US-based account shares fact-checked content, except when sharing such hoax content.

Fact-checking outside of the United States:

If you share content on Facebook or Instagram that’s rated by one of our third-party fact-checking partners, we may apply penalties to the content and, if you do it repeatedly, to your account, Page, Group, or website. These penalties are separate from strikes for violating our Community Standards. We don’t remove content just because it was fact-checked.

If you post content that one of our third-party fact-checkers rates False, Altered or Partly False, or we detect it as near identical, it may receive reduced distribution on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. For this content, as well as content fact-checkers rate Missing Context, we’ll also apply a notice with more context, filter it from recommendation surfaces such as Explore, Suggested Posts and Reels, and not allow it in ads.

If you repeatedly post content rated False or Altered on Facebook or Instagram, we’ll take several actions that will last for a subsequent 90 days. For example, we’ll move all of your posts lower in Feed on Facebook or Feed and Stories on Instagram so people are less likely to see them. If you continue to post such content, we’ll move your posts even lower. Pages, groups and websites will lose their ability to earn money and advertise, and Pages will lose their ability to register as a news Page. We also take steps to inform other people about your status; for example, we won’t recommend your Page, group or Instagram account to others and we may display a warning when someone tries to follow your Page. Pages and Groups can see how fact-checks are affecting them through Page Quality or Groups Quality.

There are rare occasions when we may not apply a penalty. For example, if you post the same or very similar content repeatedly, and a third-party fact-checker rates it False or Altered within a short period of time, we may only apply one penalty to your account. We do this to make sure you have enough notice that your post was rated.