Twitter’s Community Notes Aims to Crowdsource Veracity, Fight Misinformation, Provide Context

Elon Musk bought Twitter. Elon Musk broke Twitter. Elon Musk built a new and better Twitter. However, unlike the six million dollar man, the new Twitter is more akin to the $6 man. As Elon cuts needless expenses to trim Twitter into a lean and mean earning machine, or at least an outfit that doesn’t operate year-after-year accruing debt, we are witnessing some interesting changes to the microblogging platform.

Of course, one of the departments that was obliterated in the savings-frenzy was the bloated Trust and Safety division,the people who moderate content. So, you you think that Twitter was left without a way for its poor, innocent users to distinguish fact from fiction? Hell. No. In fact, people always used their own wits, their own life experience, and their own reasoning ability to decide what’s bogus and what’s worthwhile.

Enter Community Notes, which builds on a Twitter feature formerly called Birdwatch, first instituted in early 2021, and now rebranded by Mr. Musk. He says Community Notes “is a game-changer for improving accuracy on Twitter.”

Community Notes is a gamechanger for improving accuracy on Twitter!

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 10, 2022

Community Notes, simply, is a crowdsourced approach to dealing with misleading tweets. According to Twitter’s own survey, tweets with Birdwatch notes appended are 20% to 40% less likely to be considered worthy of agreement by Twitter users. It’s described by former Forbes contibutor Rachel Sandler as “A Wikipedia-Style Approach To Fight Misinformation.” While that’s not a quite-apt description, as there isn’t an “official” page that can be edited and re-edited on Twitter like Wikipedia, the similarity extends to the fact that both platforms rely on registered contributors to get facts straight. And, even you can join!

Sign up to become a Community Notes contributor: https://t.co/FSsqNzonnz

— Community Notes (@CommunityNotes) March 14, 2023

This fact-checking tool has now been rolled out to a wider American audience, after some time testing using randomized testing with an initial group of only 10,000 Twitter users. Of course, misinformation is rampant, however, this tool is more than simply a misinfo-flagging utility. The pilot program was in testing to find ways to make manipulation and majority-mobbing insignificant factors. Eventually, the program will be enacted for the entire global audience.

Community Notes allows users to provide context, and that means that each user might provide a different insight, rather than simply providing an “official” fact associated with the inaccurate tweet. Of course, this is a vast improvement to overall usefulness of Twitter as a communications platform. Twitter VP Keith Coleman blogged in 2021 that,”…this approach has the potential to respond quickly when misleading information spreads, adding context that people trust and find valuable…” The testing program was well-received, according to Coleman, and Twitter users across the political spectrum were satisfied with its results.

Image Credit – Chuttersnap

Joanna Geary in an official Twitter blog post from August, 2021, entitled “Bringing more reliable context to conversations on Twitter”,  stated that the Associated Press and Reuters began a collaboration with Twitter to help “identify and elevate” what has been determined to be credible and accurate information on Twitter. Reliable sources are baked into the equation, and include far more than just these two news services.

And so, it’s really a hybrid program, relying on both crowdsourcing, as well as the input of respected and trusted media, along with others. Community Notes is a sharp divergence from the practice of placing one “official” note on a tweet or other social media content online, which usually provides a snippet of “truth,” as well as a link.

Crowd with umbrellas. Image Credit – Joseph Chan

In reality, truth is complex, truth is nuanced.  And, without context, there is no truth at all.  Tweets will most assuredly be more meaningful with crowdsourced Community Notes context pinned to them, as the real asset at Twitter, and any other online platform, is its users. The Twitter experience is rendered more intellectually stimulating, and likewise more stimulating to the formation of community, itself.

“Trust, accuracy and impartiality are at the heart of what Reuters does every day, providing billions of people with the information they need to make smart decisions. Those values also drive our commitment to stopping the spread of misinformation. We’re excited to partner with Twitter to leverage our deep global and local expertise to serve the public conversation with reliable information.”

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Hazel Baker

Head of UGC Newsgathering, Reuters

Crowd at an event. Image Credit – Hanson Lu

“AP has a long history of working closely with Twitter, along with other platforms, to expand the reach of factual journalism. This work is core to our mission. We are particularly excited about leveraging AP’s scale and speed to add context to online conversations, which can benefit from easy access to the facts.”

Tom Januszewski

Vice President of Global Business Development, AP

Banner Image: Crowd. Image Credit – Rob Curran