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Meta began accepting sign-ups for Community Notes on February 20, 2025. The initial U.S. program invited potential contributors on Facebook, Instagram and Threads, but signing up put people on a waitlist—it did not provide immediate permission to write or publish Notes. Meta later tested contributors and began displaying Notes gradually in the United States.
As of August 18, 2026, the available announcements do not establish that a new sign-up window is open, that the original rules still apply, or that the program is available worldwide.
What Meta announced
The February 20, 2025 announcement was the recruitment phase of Meta’s replacement for its U.S. third-party fact-checking approach. Meta had announced the broader policy change on January 7, 2025, saying Community Notes would let users add context to posts rather than relying on external fact-checking organizations to label them.
Sign-ups covered Facebook, Instagram and Threads. The announcement was not a full public launch: Meta planned to select people gradually from a waitlist, test the writing and rating systems, and decide later when Notes would appear publicly. TechCrunch reported the February 20 sign-up announcement.
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Who could sign up initially?
Meta’s launch criteria were for people in the United States. They should be treated as original requirements, not confirmed 2026 rules.
| Requirement | Initial launch rule |
|---|---|
| Age | At least 18 |
| Location | United States |
| Account age | More than six months old |
| Account status | In good standing |
| Security | A verified phone number or enrollment in two-factor authentication |
Meeting these conditions did not guarantee admission. An account older than six months could still fail the good-standing or security requirements, and the original material did not promise a particular acceptance date.
How Community Notes were designed to work
- Identify a post: A contributor finds content that seems misleading, confusing or in need of useful context.
- Write a short explanation: The contributor adds context or a correction rather than a personal insult or general disagreement.
- Attach evidence: A supporting link is required.
- Receive ratings: Other contributors assess whether the Note is helpful.
- Reach cross-perspective agreement: Meta said a Note would not be published merely because it won a simple majority. People whose earlier rating patterns differed broadly had to find it helpful.
Meta said contributors, rather than its employees, would write and rate Notes, while Meta would operate the platform, set standards and run the publication system. The initial design did not display the author’s name.
Meta described this cross-perspective model as a way to reduce one-sided ratings. That is the company’s stated rationale, not an independently established result. Agreement across differing viewpoints may limit partisan or low-quality Notes, but it can also delay a useful correction when contributors disagree about wording, evidence or importance.
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- A maximum of 500 characters.
- A required supporting link.
- Compliance with Meta’s Community Standards.
- Context, background or a correction—not a comment, insult, political argument or simple marker of disagreement.
- No submission on advertisements during the initial program.
The initial U.S. launch supported English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, French and Portuguese. A link improves verifiability, but it does not by itself prove that a claim is accurate: the destination could be a primary source, a reputable report, an opinion article or an unreliable page.
Timeline from policy change to public Notes
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| January 7, 2025 | Meta announced its plan to replace U.S. third-party fact-checking with Community Notes and invited early-contributor sign-ups. Meta’s policy announcement. |
| February 20, 2025 | Sign-ups for prospective contributors began across Facebook, Instagram and Threads. |
| March 13, 2025 | Meta said about 200,000 potential U.S. contributors had signed up across the three services. |
| March 18, 2025 | Meta planned to begin testing by allowing selected contributors to write and rate Notes. |
| April 7, 2025 | Meta said the U.S. third-party fact-checking program was ending and Community Notes would begin appearing gradually in the United States. Meta’s testing and rollout update. |
What signing up did—and did not—mean
- Sign-up: Joining the prospective-contributor waitlist.
- Admission: Being selected gradually and randomly for testing.
- Contribution: Receiving permission to write or rate Notes.
- Publication: Having a particular Note pass the cross-perspective helpfulness threshold.
These were separate stages. Meta’s estimate of roughly 200,000 sign-ups did not mean that all those people could immediately contribute, and permission to write a Note did not guarantee that it would appear publicly.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What to do if you are looking for a sign-up prompt
The launch sources confirm sign-up availability through Facebook, Instagram and Threads but do not establish one permanent menu path or identical labels in each app. Use this practical check instead:
- Look for an official Community Notes invitation, waitlist or enrollment prompt inside the relevant Meta app.
- Confirm that you are using the intended Facebook, Instagram or Threads account.
- Check the original U.S. age, account-age, standing and phone-or-2FA conditions.
- Update the app before treating a missing prompt as a technical failure.
- Allow for geography, staged admission, account-specific eligibility or a changed interface.
A missing option does not prove that you are permanently ineligible, and a visible enrollment form does not prove that acceptance or posting access is immediate. Eligibility on one service should not be assumed to apply automatically to the other two.
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How this differed from third-party fact-checking
Under the earlier model, Meta worked with external fact-checking organizations. Under Community Notes, contributors write and rate the context, and publication is intended to depend on agreement among contributors with different rating histories. Meta said it would use a less-obtrusive contextual label rather than the previous full-screen fact-check warning treatment.
Community Notes therefore became a crowdsourced context system, not a one-for-one label for every disputed post and not the end of all moderation or enforcement. Meta presented the change as less vulnerable to viewpoint bias, but that remains a company claim rather than a proven outcome.
What remains uncertain in 2026
The February and April 2025 announcements do not verify a current August 2026 enrollment window, worldwide availability, unchanged eligibility rules, current language support, current character limits, or current app instructions. Later product changes could have altered any of those details. Treat launch specifications as historical unless a newer official Meta notice confirms them.
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