X’s Community Notes Ineffective Against US Election Misinformation: Report

According to a report by the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), the crowdsourced fact-checking tool on Elon Musk’s social media platform X, known as Community Notes, is failing to curb the spread of US election misinformation.

The CCDH found that 74% of reviewed posts (209 out of 283) lacked accurate Community Notes to correct misleading US election claims, including false assertions that the 2020 election was stolen and voting systems are unreliable.

Even when Community Notes did appear, the original misleading posts received 13 times more views than the fact-checking notes, CCDH reported.

Community Notes allows X users, once approved as contributors, to write fact checks on posts. These checks are then rated by others for accuracy, sourcing, clarity, and neutrality.

Originally launched as Birdwatch in 2021 by Twitter's former leadership, the feature was renamed Community Notes by Musk in 2022.

BOOM also previously reported that Community Notes is struggling to curb misinformation on its platform amid India’s highly polarised election, where political rhetoric escalated into anti-Muslim hate speech.