• by Colin Kirkland , May 16, 2024

With a contentious presidential election coming this November, Threads has begun rolling out its own fact-checking program, allowing third-party fact-checking partners to review and rate false content on the decentralized microblogging app.

“Previously, we matched near-identical false content on Threads based on what was fact-checked on Facebook and Instagram,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri explained on Tuesday. “Now fact-checkers can rate Threads content on its own.”

Mosseri mentioned that the direct fact-checking capability was rolled out “recently” but hasn't shared any further details about when exactly the program was rolled out, which regions are able to access it thus far, or which organizations make up Meta's fact-checking partners.

It is also unclear as to whether direct fact-checking on Threads has become available to partners in India, which makes up Facebook and Instagram's largest market in terms of users and is currently undergoing national elections.

Mosseri first announced Meta’s plans to implement direct fact-checking for Threads back in December, giving partners “the ability to review and rate misinformation on the app.”

Threads' ability to combat misinformation on its platform, especially during a presidential election year, will likely be compared to rival app X, which has struggled to crack down on the spread of harmful, misleading, and offensive content. In the past year, X owner Elon Musk has publicly promoted antisemitic posts, offended major advertisers, and reinstated banned accounts of far-right personalities and political figures.

Unlike X, however, Threads has taken a stance against the proliferation of political content in general, announcing in February that it wouldn’t be recommending content about politics on Threads or Instagram.