This week, X (formerly Twitter) made an adjustment to its Community Notes feature, which relies on crowdsourcing for fact-checking. In this new approach, users will have the opportunity to review all the notes suggested as annotations to a post on X, rather than just the single note they were initially assessing. Essentially, this change enables contributors to consider a broader spectrum of perspectives before providing their evaluation, potentially leading to altered judgments.
While this alteration may seem subtle, it carries the potential to encourage Community Notes contributors to take into account various viewpoints instead of simply aligning with the prevailing consensus on a particular note’s helpfulness. This consensus determines whether a note is publicly displayed below the post on X as a crowdsourced fact-check.
X states that this modification was necessary to ensure that contributors have access to as much useful information as possible while rating notes. However, it also serves as a mechanism for presenting alternative viewpoints to contributors, which could sway their opinions or contribute to confusion about which proposed note is the most helpful and accurate.
The initial feedback on X’s update has been largely positive. Nevertheless, its practical impact remains to be seen. It remains uncertain whether this change will lead to more contributors reconsidering their evaluations and selecting alternative notes as more helpful, instead of the one they are currently reviewing.
Even in the example provided by X, there are two presented notes, both of which could be deemed helpful. One note corrects misinformation in a tweet by highlighting that whales are indeed mammals, while the other argues that a note is unnecessary because the account is a parody. Both notes happen to be factually accurate. However, the latter note might encourage Community Note contributors to omit essential context from a tweet.
The situation could become even more complex if the parody account has political implications, and the statements deemed “not in need of correction” are misinformation propagated by one side. In such cases, disregarding the note solely because it pertains to a parody account could be more harmful if users fail to investigate the account’s bio, where its parody nature is disclosed.
Community Notes was initially introduced as Birdwatch in 2021, before Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform formerly known as Twitter. It is one of the platform’s more innovative features, utilizing an algorithm to seek consensus among groups with differing viewpoints before showcasing crowdsourced fact-checks to other users. Additionally, Community Notes contributors must first demonstrate their capability by rating notes as helpful or unhelpful and earning points when their assessment aligns with the broader community’s final decision.
Under Musk’s ownership, the system has undergone continuous updates, including the recent introduction of Community Notes for videos, along with other modifications aimed at streamlining the process and addressing low-quality contributions.
