X Gives Community Notes a Speedy Upgrade: A Commitment to Fact-Checking
- 13 Oct 2023
The social media landscape has been evolving rapidly, and the company formerly known as Twitter, now known as X, is no exception. X has recently announced a series of enhancements to its crowdsourced fact-checking system, Community Notes, following multi-day delays in correcting misinformation spreading across the platform. This not only focuses on expediting the process but also includes updates designed to alert users when notes have been appended to posts they have interacted with, either through likes, replies or reposts.
The decision to speed up the fact-checking process came after X's CEO, Linda Yaccarino, assured in a post that Community Notes would appear more promptly on X. This post followed an incident where more than 50 million posts referencing a terrorist attack in Israel by Hamas flooded the platform over a couple of days. The magnitude of the content being circulated on the platform has underscored the importance of faster fact-checking to prevent the propagation of disinformation.
In its pursuit of a more effective fact-checking mechanism, X has made significant strides. Now, users on Android and web platforms can preview notes, with iOS support said to be "coming soon." This feature enables faster gathering of ratings for fact-checks written by community members, accelerating the publication of accurate and valuable notes. Additionally, X has scaled up its notification feature to alert users who interacted with a post that was later fact-checked by Community Notes. This move aims to encourage users who inadvertently distributed misleading information to either delete their posts or edit them to provide more context.
X has also optimized its media matching capability; notes written on images and videos will now appear on more posts containing the same media. This feature has already shown significant results in its initial phase, with notes written in a week displayed on an additional 3,000+ posts. X continues to improve this system while also working on other features like media matching, notifications, and note previews.
Despite this significant progress, it remains uncertain whether X’s crowdsourced fact-checking system can keep up with the deluge of posts, even with the rapid advancement in technology. However, X remains committed to combating the spread of misinformation. The company has updated its public interest policy and has been coordinating with @GIFCT_official to curb the distribution of terrorist content on its platform. Amidst the global crisis, CEO Linda Yaccarino has prioritized the safety of X's platform over her scheduled appearances. While some improvements are still needed, X's commitment to fact-checking and the dissemination of accurate information is clear. The recent enhancements to Community Notes are a testament to this commitment, and users can expect more improvements in the future.