{"id":1193479,"date":"2023-10-17T19:51:25","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T23:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1193479"},"modified":"2023-10-17T19:51:25","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T23:51:25","slug":"x-now-requires-community-fact-checks-to-include-sources","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/?p=1193479","title":{"rendered":"X now requires community fact checks to include sources"},"content":{"rendered":"

X is making a significant change to its crowd-soruced fact checking tool in an attempt to stem the flow of misinformation on its platform. The new rule is one that will be familiar to professional fact checkers, academics and Wikipedia editors, but is nonetheless new to X\u2019s approach to fact-checking: the company will now require<\/ins><\/a> its volunteer contributors to include sources on every community note they write.<\/p>\n

The company announced the change in a post on X, shortly after Wired<\/em> reported<\/ins><\/a> that some community notes contributors are worried the tool is being manipulated by bad actors and worsening X\u2019s misinformation problems amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war. \u201cStarting today, sources are now required for proposed notes,\u201d the company wrote. \u201cWe haven\u2019t previously required this, as some helpful notes inherently do not need sources \u2013 for example, they refer to details of the post or media it contains. But those instances are less common, and we believe the overall impact of this change will be positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The change comes amid mounting scrutiny of the amount of misinformation<\/ins><\/a> and other falsehoods spreading on X in recent days. Longtime researchers have said that misinformation has reached new heights<\/ins><\/a> following Hamas\u2019 attacks in Israel and the ensuing war. The advent of paid verification, and algorithm changes that boost paying subscribers, have allowed misinformation to spread relatively unchecked, researchers have said.<\/p>\n

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Notes that cite sources have a much higher likelihood of earning a ‘Helpful’ status. This is not surprising, as sources make notes more easily verifiable by viewers and raters. Starting today, sources are now required for proposed notes.<\/p>\n

We haven\u2019t previously required this, as\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/6CWGkvtLPJ<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Community Notes (@CommunityNotes) October 17, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

European Union officials have also raised concerns<\/ins><\/a>, pointing to the viral spread of video game footage and other unrelated content falsely claiming to depict scenes from the ongoing conflict. EU officials opened an investigation<\/ins><\/a> into X over its handling of misinformation last week.<\/p>\n

Under Elon Musk\u2019s leadership, X cut the teams responsible for curating reputable information about breaking news events, removed misinformation-reporting tools, slashed safety teams that patrolled for disinformation, and stopped labeling state-affiliated media accounts. Instead, the company has relied almost entirely on Community Notes, which allows volunteer contributors to append fact-checks to individual tweets.<\/p>\n

Contributors are not vetted before joining the program, though notes have to reach a certain threshold of \u201chelpful\u201d ratings from other contributors before they\u2019ll be visible. X CEO Linda Yaccarino told<\/ins><\/a> EU officials last week that the company had \u201crecently launched a major acceleration in the speed at which notes appear.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Wired<\/em>, the system is easily manipulated as groups of contributors can rate each other\u2019s notes, or selectively rate contributions that align with their opinions. The report also says that community notes related to the Israel-Hamas war have been filled with conspiracy theories and infighting between contributors.<\/p>\n

The change to require a linked source may be X\u2019s attempt to increase the quality of its notes, though it doesn\u2019t seem to have any guidelines about the types of sources that can be cited. The company says \u201cthousands\u201d<\/ins><\/a> of new contributors have joined the program in recent days, and that notes have been viewed \u201cmillions\u201d of times.<\/p>\n

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https:\/\/www.engadget.com\/x-now-requires-community-fact-checks-to-include-sources-235125787.html?src=rss
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\nSource: Engadget – X now requires community fact checks to include sources<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

X is making a significant change to its crowd-soruced fact checking tool in an attempt to stem the flow of misinformation on its platform. The new rule is one that will be familiar to professional fact checkers, academics and Wikipedia … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,110],"tags":[98],"class_list":["post-1193479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-engadget","category-unfiltered-rss","tag-engadget"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1193479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1193479\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1193479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1193479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prime-wow.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1193479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}