X is expanding its Community Notes option once again, this time by adding the capacity for users to request a note on posts that they believe may include questionable claims.
As you can see in this example, there’s now a new option within the post menu on desktop to “Request Community Note”, which will then flag that for checking by Community Notes contributors.
As explained by X:
“People on X can request a Community Note on a post they believe would benefit from one. If there are enough requests, Community Notes contributors will see an alert, and can choose to propose a note. This gives people on X who are not contributors a way to help, and lets contributors know where notes might be found helpful.”
It could be a good way to dispel misinformation in the app, by making it easier for users to actually seek out notes, rather than only relying on those that are available under the current system. Of course, that also depends on users actually going to the effort of making such a request, but it could be a valuable supplemental process to the Community Notes system.
In order to request a Community Note, the user must have a verified phone number attached to their profile, which is also a requirement for X Premium subscriptions.
Accounts will initially be allowed to submit up to five requests for notes per day, though X says that this may be increased if requests end up driving more helpful notes.
Community Notes has been one of the top innovations boosted by Elon Musk since he took over the app. Initially developed under Twitter (as “Birdwatch”), research has shown that Community Notes can be a valuable tool in dispelling misinformation, and reducing amplification of false claims.
The only concern, at present, is that X is putting too much reliance on Community Notes to do all the heavy lifting in content moderation, after Elon Musk gutted the company, by culling 80% of its staff.
Many of those cut roles were in content moderation and safety, with Musk hoping to reduce the company’s overheads by putting more reliance on crowd-sourced fact-checking and feedback. That also aligns with Musk’s view that X users should be the arbiters of ultimate truth, not X management, which is another reason why Musk’s pushing Community Notes as the key solution in moderation.
But studies have shown that Community Notes, by itself, is not able to handle the full scope of moderation requirements at the app, which is allowing misinformation to gain traction, and drive alternative narratives, largely unchecked.
And with the U.S. election coming up, that could be a significant concern, and we’ve already seen conspiracy theories and misinformation gain momentum via X posts early on in the campaign.
As such, while Community Notes is a good system, which offers significant value in many respects, it may not be up to the task of covering all of X’s content detection and clarification needs.
But it’s what X is going with, and we’ll see how that leaves it in the upcoming election push, and the aftermath of what’s expected to be a divisive campaign.
