Washington (United States) (AFP) – A crowd-sourced verification system used by Elon Musk’s X failed to flag a vast majority of false claims related to the US midterm elections — including those promoted by the billionaire — a study said Wednesday. Community Notes, which allows users to contribute notes that add context or corrections to posts, was introduced by X in late 2022 and the same model is increasingly being adopted by other tech platforms. But researchers have repeatedly questioned its effectiveness in combating misinformation.
NewsGuard, a US watchdog that rates the credibility of news and information sites, identified dozens of posts on X that advanced false claims related to the elections, including bogus allegations of election fraud. Only 13 of those posts were tagged with Community Notes. “X’s crowdsourced fact-checking program failed to flag 93.1 percent of false claims related to the US midterm elections,” NewsGuard said. “The uncorrected X posts have drawn millions of interactions ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.”
The falsehoods included a post by a conservative commentator claiming that New York and California had made it illegal for voters to show — and officials to ask for — their voter ID. No such rule exists in either Democratic stronghold. Musk has often promoted Community Notes, calling it “awesome” and asserting that all users, including himself, were subject to being corrected by the crowd-sourced model. NewsGuard, however, said that Musk, who has 241.5 million followers on X, has advanced at least four false claims related to the midterm elections, none of which carried Community Notes. X did not respond to AFP’s request for comment.
Studies have shown Community Notes can work to dispel some falsehoods, like vaccine misinformation, but researchers have long cautioned that it works best for topics where there is broad consensus. Some researchers have also cautioned that Community Notes users can be motivated to target political opponents by partisan beliefs. Tech platforms increasingly view the community-driven model as an alternative to professional fact-checking.
Last year, Meta ended its third-party fact-checking program in the United States, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying it had led to “too much censorship.” Professional fact-checkers vehemently reject the claim. Last month, Meta said it had begun testing its own version of Community Notes in 16 Spanish-speaking countries in Latin America, in a step toward replacing its fact-checking program. Meta gave no timeline for when the change will become official. Meta’s Oversight Board, a quasi-independent body the company funds to review its moderation decisions, said Community Notes was not an adequate replacement for fact-checking. AFP currently works in 26 languages with Meta’s global fact-checking program, including in Latin America.
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