Twitter has started notifying its users when tweets they have interacted with get new Community Notes, or additional context provided by contributors in efforts to curtail misinformation on the platform.
This new feature can help point out inaccuracies and allow people to reconsider their reaction to tweets they have replied to, liked, or retweeted. “This helps give people extra context that they might otherwise miss,” Twitter said on 21 February.
Community Notes, previously called Birdwatch, was first introduced in the U.S. in early 2021 to “help address misleading information on Twitter”. After making the notes visible to all users in the U.S. in October last year, Twitter began accepting contributions from the U.K., Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand in January.
Twitter CEO Elon Musk has repeatedly touted Community Notes, saying that it has potential to improve information accuracy on the platform. “In general, Community Notes is a game changer for combating wrong information,” Musk said.
Nonetheless, the crowdsourced fact-checking program comes with risks, as some tweets could be misinterpreted by a contributor. To be a contributor, one must have joined Twitter for at least six months, have a verified phone number from a trusted phone carrier, and have not recently violated Twitter’s rules.