Twitter has rolled out another update for its Community Notes feature, this time with a new alert when a tweet that you’ve previously engaged with gets a new note attached.
Starting today, you’ll get a heads up if a Community Note starts showing on a Tweet you’ve replied to, Liked or Retweeted. This helps give people extra context that they might otherwise miss. pic.twitter.com/LIcGgl2zdJ
— Community Notes (@CommunityNotes) February 21, 2023
It’s a handy update, which could help to dispel misinformation, and limit the flow of false reports, by alerting people to errors, enabling them to re-assess their initial response. At the least, it should improve information flow in the app, by keeping people updated on important clarifications and amendments, as provided by the Notes community.
Community Notes has emerged as a key element in Elon Musk’s ‘Twitter 2.0’ reformation plan, with Musk’s view being that, through notes, the Twitter community will be equipped to provide important updates and feedback on tweets. That, in effect, will enable Twitter users to moderate their own content, to the community’s own standards, as opposed to Twitter having to make decisions on such itself.
Which should then see the content of tweets better align with general user expectation, as opposed to Twitter’s management’s perspective. Musk has been a vocal critic of Twitter’s past actions in restricting speech, and via Community Notes, he’s hoping to improve the situation, while again, also lessening the burden on Twitter itself.
But then again, if you’re being critical of Tesla, that’s likely not going to fly.
Specific cases aside, Community Notes does make sense as an additional layer to combat misinformation, though there are some inherent risks and flaws in letting the community moderate itself.
Some Community Notes have misinterpreted the original tweet, or focused on a lesser element of the comment, thereby dispelling the whole tweet based on one aspect.
Essentially, Community Notes is a handy supplementary moderation element, but it’s not an end unto itself.
How much Musk views it as such, we’ll soon find out, as Twitter continues to roll Community Notes out to more regions.