Community notes, the moderation tool promoted by Elon Musk, has received mixed reviews as Twitter users have expressed dissatisfaction with corrections deemed abusive. Musk, now the owner of Twitter under the name X, introduced community notes in early 2021 as Birdwatch. The feature initially allowed users in the United States to flag questionable posts and provide contextual notes. These notes were initially only visible on a separate site but were later placed directly under the flagged posts.
The launch of community notes followed Twitter’s decision to remove then-President Donald Trump from the platform for inciting violence at the US Capitol. The intention was to promote healthier conversations on the platform. In November 2022, a community note prompted the White House to retract a tweet that exaggerated the impact of President Joe Biden’s policies on retirement benefits. Despite Musk’s relaxed moderation approach, his goal remains making Twitter the most accurate source of information regardless of political affiliation.
Community notes have now been rolled out to 44 countries. Contributors, who are registered Twitter users, write proposals for notes that are not edited by X staff. However, the notes must adhere to X’s moderation rules. The proposed notes are then submitted to other contributors for voting. Notes that receive enough votes as being helpful may be selected by an algorithm for public posting. The algorithm is similar to Netflix’s recommendation algorithm, aiming to identify notes with broad appeal across different viewpoints.
The effectiveness of community notes in fighting disinformation has been debated. According to X, users are on average 30% less likely to agree with the content of a post after reading accompanying community notes, and they are also less likely to repost it. However, critics argue that the algorithm’s flaw lies in the need for a consensus across ideological divides for posts to be published. Achieving cross-ideological agreement on truth is increasingly challenging in a partisan environment.
Musk has faced criticism for his content moderation decisions since taking over Twitter. He has made significant cuts to moderation teams and withdrew the platform from the EU’s voluntary code of best practices on disinformation. For Musk, community notes are an economical method of moderating content, including political advertising, which has been recently re-authorized on the platform.
The algorithm used for community notes is designed to discourage manipulation, but it is not foolproof and relies on a large number of evaluators. Some groups, such as hard right organizations in France, have attempted to game the algorithm to promote their ideas. French Green lawmaker Julien Bayou believes that community notes have become a tool for ideological jousting, which can be distorted.
In conclusion, community notes have sparked both praise and criticism. While they have proven effective in providing context to non-political content, their ability to combat disinformation in a politically divided environment remains uncertain.
Credit: The Star : Tech Feed
