Facebook to end fact-checking! What it means for veterinary practices and how you can stay ahead.

February 4, 2025

By now, you will have likely heard that Meta has made the decision to end its third-party fact-checking platform [1] across Facebook and Instagram. In a video [2] shared to Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg said that fact-checkers have been “too politically biased”, and this move is motivated by a desire to return to the platform’s “roots around free expression.”

Moving forward, notes submitted by users will replace the corrections that would have been provided by Meta’s verified fact checking partners. While there is much discussion currently taking place about the impact this move will have both on Meta’s platforms and social media at large [3], it is important for all businesses to be aware of these changes and the potential implications that may arise over the coming weeks and months.

As a local business, Facebook and Instagram should play a key role in your practice’s digital strategy, so let’s take this opportunity to explore some tactics that will help you to stay ahead and ensure your message is reaching and connecting with your target audience of pet owners.

Increased misinformation and the erosion of trust

Without robust, independent fact-checking measures in place, we may see an increase in misleading or inaccurate pet health advice spreading across social media, which could be detrimental to pet care and health.

Additionally, pet owners could encounter claims that are exaggerated or unverified but otherwise believable, which may begin to affect the sense of trust that your practice has worked so hard to build with your audience. So, it is important to be mindful of the fact that you may need to work a little harder to ensure that your content is validated and backed up with credentials and facts.

The shift to other social platforms

Even with the best efforts of responsible veterinary practices, over time, we may still see an uptick in the number of pet owners who become wary of viewing Facebook as somewhere they can engage with educational content. As a result, pet owners may begin to migrate to other platforms that are viewed as being more credible or turn to direct internet searches to obtain fully verified information.

So, what steps can your practice take now to ensure that you are consistently positioning yourself as a credible source of accurate information?

1. Emphasise your credibility

From now on, it will be important to consistently emphasise your expertise and credibility in order to distinguish your content from posts that haven’t been properly verified. There are a number of ways to achieve this, including highlighting who has written your online content and placing particular emphasis on the professional qualifications they have obtained and their specific areas of expertise.

It’s also a great idea to introduce your audience to your team, as this can help to nurture trust and familiarity. There are a number of ways to do this, such as adding a ‘meet the team’ section to your website and highlighting the role that each member of your team performs through a series of images or short videos shared to your social platforms.

2. Establish your digital presence as a trusted destination

Now is the time to optimise your digital presence by ensuring that your website, social media profiles and blog are populated with high quality content that showcases your team’s credentials.

Ensuring that your content is educational, accurate and backed up by professional credentials will help you to stand out, both on social media and general searches. Working to establish your practice as a recognisable and trustworthy source of information is key and will enable you to drive more traffic to your site as pet owners increasingly start to prioritise results from recognised organisations, peer-reviewed sources and veterinary practices.

It will, therefore, also be valuable to focus on creating engaging, fact-based educational content that is SEO-friendly and directly answers some of the most common pet care questions being asked by your target audience.

3. Diversify your online presence

While it is important not to cause overwhelm by attempting to do too much, it’s worth thinking about diversifying your online presence across several different social platforms. It can be relatively straightforward to repurpose video content across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts, which may be beneficial as misinformation controls across different platforms will vary and may now be stronger than those on Facebook.

4. Encourage reviews

If general levels of trust in social content decline, it is likely that pet owners will become more reliant on word-of-mouth recommendations and online reviews. So, now is an excellent time to encourage your client base to leave reviews on VetHelpDirect.com or Google for your practice.

While Google specifically states that you should not directly incentivise your clients to leave reviews [4], you can highlight how simple the review process is and the benefits reviews can have to your community. Responding to the reviews you receive is an excellent way to demonstrate that you are engaged with your owners, which may further boost the trustworthiness of your practice.

5. Engage with your community

Don’t be afraid to keep your audience updated about what’s happening, as this provides you with the opportunity to encourage pet owners to verify the information they’re seeing by consulting reliable resources and contacting your practice directly.

As professionals, it is important that we all play a part in ensuring that pet owners have access to accurate information that will enable them to make the best, fully informed decisions for their pets and ultimately improving the overall health and wellbeing of the pet population.

 

Resources:

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/07/why-did-mark-zuckerberg-end-facebook-instagram-fact-checking 

[2] https://www.instagram.com/reel/DEhf2uTJUs0/?igsh=dHVxbmdrbW9xMzg

[3] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cjwlwlqpwx7o

[4] https://support.google.com/business/answer/3474122?hl=en-GB

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