Twitter to notify users of tweets getting flagged by a Community Note: How will it work
Misinformation has plagued social media platforms like Twitter for a long time. Moreover, when tweets carrying false information get endorsements from notable figures, it becomes even more difficult for common users to determine the authenticity of such posts. Twitter’s Community Notes is a crowdsourced fact-checking program that helps in determining the authenticity of a piece of information.
To stop the spread of fake news the social media service will now leverage this feature to notify users who have interacted with tweets containing misinformation. Twitter will now notify users if a tweet that they have liked, retweeted, or replied to gets flagged by the Community Notes contributors for contextual information.
In such situations, the micro-blogging site will also allow users to withdraw interactions made on a fake post. In a tweet shared by the company, it claims that this feature will help “give people extra context that they might otherwise miss.”
Starting today, you’ll get a heads up if a Community Note starts showing on a Tweet you’ve replied to, Liked or Ret… https://t.co/rl29po05X1
— Community Notes (@CommunityNotes) 1677018131000
How will it work
Twitter has been pushing its algorithmic feed for a while now. Whenever users like, retweet, or reply to a tweet, it gives the post relevance in the recommendation algorithms. If the original view of a post is exposed by the context provided by a Community Notes contributor, there is a possibility that people might remove their likes or retweets from the concerned tweets.
Twitter Community Notes program: More details
In 2021, Twitter introduced the Community Notes program under the name “Birdwatch” for US-based users. This program was later renamed to “Community Notes” after Tesla CEO Elon Musk acquired the social media company in October 2022.
Twitter Community Notes started appearing for all users across the globe in December 2022. Later on, in January, the company started accepting notes from contributors based in countries other than the US which includes the UK, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand.