Social media platfomr ‘X’ has commenced a new experimental program, announced on Thursday, to utilize its Community Notes system for not only for fact-checking but also identify posts that resonate positively with users across a spectrum of perspectives. This marks an evolution for Community Notes, which was originally launched as “Birdwatch” by Twitter in January 2021. Following Elon Musk’s acquisition of the platform, the feature was rebranded to Community Notes and saw a global expansion in November 2022, becoming an open-source project with its code publicly available on GitHub.
The pilot program enables selected Community Notes contributors to evaluate posts by answering questions about why they find particular content agreeable or disagreeable. This method mirrors the core mechanics of Community Notes’ existing function, which relies on a “bridging algorithm” to foster consensus. This algorithm specifically seeks agreement among individuals who typically hold differing viewpoints, thereby circumventing the potential for manipulation. For instance, a fact-check note becomes publicly visible only when it has received corroboration from contributors representing a diverse array of perspectives.
X’s new experiment aims to determine if the Community Notes framework can effectively identify posts that are widely regarded as beneficial or insightful. As part of this test, a subset of Community Notes contributors will receive notifications within the platform when a post attracts considerable engagement in the form of “Likes.” These contributors will then provide ratings and feedback, with their input intended to inform an algorithm capable of recognizing content that garners positive reception across diverse viewpoints.
This new iteration of Community Notes could enhance the overall user experience on X by helping to surface high-quality content that resonates broadly. Rather than relying solely on engagement metrics like Likes or reposts—which can sometimes amplify sensationalism or misinformation—the new system introduces a layer of qualitative feedback. By identifying posts that many users genuinely appreciate or find insightful, the platform could better prioritize thoughtful, informative, or entertaining content in users’ feeds. The new Community Notes expansion also offers transparency into why certain posts are popular. Instead of simply seeing that a post is trending, users can gain insight into the specific aspects—clarity, helpfulness, humor, or relevance—that others found valuable.
In a statement on X, the company revealed that the new experimental feature “seeks to uncover ideas, insights, and opinions that bridge perspectives.” In alignment with its transparent development process for the original Community Notes feature, X is conducting this as a “small pilot,” with the expressed goal of allowing community input to shape the concept’s evolution.
Community Notes has scaled significantly since its inception. As of May 2024, the program boasts over 500,000 contributors across more than 70 countries. Published notes are said to achieve tens of millions of views daily, with billions of views annually, though the numbers took a sharp hit this year, according to a previous report. The nu,ber had dropped from nearly 120,000 in January to less than 60,000 in May.
While Community Notes has faced scrutiny regarding its speed in addressing the vast volume of misinformation, an issue where notes might take an average of 14 days to go live (down from over 100 days in 2022, but still often too slow for viral content), its underlying algorithmic approach has drawn a lot of attention, and other companies have taken a page out of X’s book.
Meta, for example, announced in January that it would transition to a community-oriented content moderation system similar to X’s Community Notes for Facebook, Instagram, and Threads in the US, replacing its previous reliance on third-party fact-checkers.
