LAS VEGAS — The chief executive of social media service X, formerly Twitter, voiced her support for Meta Platform's decision to end its fact-checking program in favor of X-like community notes. X CEO Linda Yaccarino made her comments in a keynote presentation at CES 2025 on Tuesday.
Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram and Threads, will no longer try to be the arbiter of truth and will let users respond directly to posts on Meta services. Meta Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the change on Tuesday.
Conservatives and libertarians have long accused Meta's fact-checkers of liberal bias and silencing news and opinions they didn't agree with.
Yaccarino described community notes as the best way to handle controversial information on social media. That's because the global user base contributes to clarify articles and other posts in real time. And the posts aren't taken down by some governing group.
"It couldn't be more validating than to see that Mark and Meta realize that," Yaccarino said. "We say, Mark and Meta, 'Welcome to the party.'"
Almost a million people write community notes on X, she said.
Yaccarino said most advertisers who paused spending on X after billionaire Elon Musk purchased the company have returned. They want to reach the Gen Z audience that has gravitated to X, she said.
Also, X has added new tools that advertisers and marketers care about, such as the ability to take advantage of pop culture trending topics as they happen. That tool is called Trend Genius.
"For marketers, the Holy Grail is right ad, right place, right time, but now we're adding global scale and in the conversation," she said.
Yaccarino added, "Since the acquisition, we have rolled out over 250 product innovations, more than in the last 10 years."
CES 2025 officially opened on Tuesday and runs through Friday.
Follow Patrick Seitz on X, formerly Twitter, at @IBD_PSeitz for more stories on consumer technology, software and semiconductor stocks.
