Facebook is approaching community reviewers to help outsourced organizations of fact checkers address false claims faster.

After conducting a test run in the United States in the next few months, Facebook is hiring a “diverse group of community reviewers” as contractors through one of their program partners.

The community reviewers will submit their initial review and research on “the most obvious online hoaxes” and will also be tasked to gather information that contradicts other claims shared on the platform that are flagged by Facebook’s tools as potentially fake.

“They are not making final decisions themselves. Instead, their findings will be shared with the third-party fact checkers as additional context as they do their own official review,” as stated by Henry Silverman, the product manager, in a post shared on Facebook Newsroom.

Image Credit: Facebook

What Is The Objective of Facebook Community Reviewers?

The community reviewers goal is to simplify the process for third-party fact checkers, who will still be doing the original reporting. The community reviewers will not be as involved as the fact checkers, but they will help determine which claims are valid.

At the Facebook Fact Checking Partner Summit, Silverman said what the reviewers would do is to simply validate and complement the fact checkers’ work, especially since the reviewers will come from different backgrounds. The output will still be the responsibility of the fact checkers.

Fact-checking partners will check the collective assessment of community reviewers as a reference in selecting which stories to review and rate.

The potential community reviewers would have to pass a background check and meet a series of requirements and criteria. The criteria includes being over 18, having gone through a background check, and being computer literate enough to perform an internet search, along with other requirements.

Facebook adds “Reviewers will be audited on an ongoing basis to ensure they’re adhering [to] the guidelines and training that outlines the process”

The social media network is beginning this process in the US over the next few months and will consequently decide whether to release it on a wider scale in 2020.