Facebook parent Meta’s “Community Notes,” similar to that used on Elon Musk-owned social media platform X, will not apply to paid ads when they arrive later this year, according to a person familiar with the matter.
TakeAway Points:
- Meta’s “Community Notes,” similar to that used on Elon Musk-owned social media platform X, will not apply to paid ads.
- Businessman Frank McCourt is willing to keep TikTok’s existing investors, including the founder, involved after any deal to buy the U.S. operations of the Chinese-owned short-form video app.
Community Notes’ Model
Community Notes on Meta Platforms will be enabled for organic content, a source said. Organic content are posts that Meta hasn’t been paid to promote.
Aspects of the program remain subject to change, according to the Wall Street Journal that first reported the development, adding that brand and influencer organic posts might not be subject to Community Notes when they first go live.
“We are making the transition to Community Notes over the next couple of months in the United States and, as with any new product rollout, we’ll continually evaluate and improve it over the course of the year,” a Meta spokesperson said in a statement.
Any assertions about how the product will work aside from what we’ve already officially communicated are pure speculation, a Meta spokesperson said.
In Meta’s biggest overhaul of its approach to managing political content, the company scrapped its U.S. fact-checking program last week and announced plans to a system of “Community Notes” ahead of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration.
The social media company will start phasing in “Community Notes” in the U.S. over the next couple of months and improve the model over the year.
Billionaire McCourt open to keeping original investors in any TikTok deal
Businessman Frank McCourt is “open-minded” to keeping TikTok’s existing investors, including the founder, involved after any deal to buy the U.S. operations of the Chinese-owned short-form video app, according to a report.
McCourt said in an interview his consortium has made a formal offer to buy TikTok from its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, confirming reports that it values the app without its algorithm at around $20 billion.
The bid is not dependent on the involvement of U.S. investment firms such as General Atlantic, Susquehanna and Sequoia Capital that own stakes in ByteDance.
“We’re also commercial and open-minded to keeping existing investors involved, including the founder,” said McCourt, who, together with his firm Project Liberty, formed a consortium last year to attempt to buy the social media platform’s U.S. operations.
The involvement of ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming would be subject to approval by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.
McCourt said Project Liberty has developed technology that will address the national security concerns that led Congress to adopt legislation calling for ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok by Sunday, or face a ban in the U.S.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming national security adviser said on Thursday the new administration will keep TikTok alive in the United States if there is a viable deal.
