Twitter is starting to roll out Community Notes. A real improvement to combat disinformation?
Twitter has just started distributing its Community Notes to all users around the world. The company made the announcement this weekend. Formerly known as Birdwatch, the feature debuted in 2021 under former CEO Jack Dorsey. This was supposed to be a way for the site to combat disinformation.
Twitter begins rolling out Community Notes
Community Notes uses a community based approach to assess the truthfulness of a tweet. Moderators participating in the program can add notes to tweets to add “context”. Platform users can then vote on whether that context is “useful”or not. Until today, only users in the United States could see these explanations of the text. Twitter explains that the platform will start adding members from other countries very soon.
Current company owner Elon Musk sees these community notes as a vital part of his “Twitter 2.0″vision, saying the feature is “a game-changer to improve the truth on Twitter.”However, as is the case with many community-based features, community notes can explode if groups use this tool to advance the views of their supporters.
A real improvement to combat disinformation?
The global rollout of Community Notes is happening around the same time as the launch of the new version of the Twitter Blue subscription. After a failed first attempt to offer a paid account certification, Twitter announced that it will begin rolling out this new subscription service today. This time around, subscribers will need to provide a phone number for verification before the company adds the infamous blue check next to their screen name. Additionally, users who change their name, nickname, or profile picture will temporarily lose their blue checkmark while Twitter can re-verify their account.
From today, community notes are visible all over the world 🌎🌍🌏
— Community Notes (@CommunityNotes) December 11, 2022