Friday, 4 August 2023, Bengaluru, India
The business X, owned by Elon Musk and once known as Twitter, is streamlining its community-based fact-checking function, Community Notes. Users have previously received explanations from the feature for why a fact check was attached to a tweet, er, post. After three years of development, the business now claims that this additional context will be deleted for users already familiar with Community Notes.
In a post, Lucas Neumann, an employee of X, says that Community Notes will develop in line with users’ needs. Although they will continue to surface for audiences new to Community Notes, the business will eliminate the in-depth explanations about how Notes function as users become accustomed to the tool, he says.
“When we first introduced @CommunityNotes, the majority of users found the idea to be incredibly foreign. Neumann says people naturally tended to be wary and to ask plenty of questions when they came across a message. According to our research, versions with more text, as opposed to ones with less, helped consumers regard notes as amiable, helpful, fair, and trustworthy. They were also more able to comprehend that they were not produced by firm employees but by community members. My minimalist designer soul originally disagreed with these findings, but since our data was sound, we erred on the side of text abundance, says the author.
“After three years, we can finally begin streamlining and improving @CommunityNotes as it develops into a first-class product and gains more users’ trust. We’re using a “progressive onboarding” strategy; in cases where space allows, thorough explanations will still be displayed for audiences new to Community Notes, but streamlined versions will first be said for those with more expertise, according to Neumann.
The modification is minor and undetectable, but it reflects the growing comprehension of the crowdsourced fact-checking methodology within X’s user base. The function formerly known as Birdwatch was introduced to Twitter’s global users in December 2022 following earlier tests. Over time, it was improved such that the “wisdom of the crowds,” so to speak, couldn’t be readily manipulated by someone or a group of people looking to spread false information.
A post or fact check cannot simply be upvoted or downvoted for correctness in the system. If such were the case, groups of writers with similar opinions could cooperate to further their positions. Instead, Community Notes employs a “bridging” algorithm to generate consensus among individuals who ordinarily hold disparate viewpoints. Only some can contribute to Community Notes right away. Before writing their notes, students must demonstrate their ability to write beneficial “notes” by accurately classifying previous messages as practical or Not Helpful, which awards them points. Users must maintain a high standard of quality contributions after achieving contributor status to keep that level.
As the company’s employee headcount, including in trust and safety and moderation, has decreased due to layoffs, Community Notes, which were initially designed to provide additional context for tweets that didn’t technically violate Twitter’s rules but may be misleading or lacking critical context, play a larger role on the new X.
Community Notes are the focus of ongoing development, even if other components of the old Twitter have been eliminated or changed, including newsletter subscriptions and the standing of third-party clients.
[Source of Information : Techcrunch.com]
