Social Media
X.com Community Notes - A Failure Of Epic Proportions
Bias, Abuse, And Uncontrolled Spread Of Disinformation
I tested Community Notes on X.com between September 2023 and January 2024 and reached the conclusion that this tool has failed to meet the expectations of the platform users.
Coincidentally, just two days after publicizing my valid points on a post on the same platform, my account was permanently suspended without justification, an action that only raised eyebrows.
Regardless, Community Notes has failed to live up to its premise.
Probably it was ambitious to consider this approach would have generated a positive outcome for the successor of Twitter, which apparently now has turned into a “dumpster fire” ready to follow MySpace in obscurity.
Millions of users have stopped using X.com, including some of the top popular news and corporations, with the latest one being Medium’s account.
A vast number of X.com’s users are dissatisfied due to the frequent presence of false information on the platform, and as a result, they are leaving it in large numbers.
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The Resolution Of The Community Notes Experiment, And The Downfall Of X.com
Community Notes generated high hopes among the users of X.com as it was promoted as a powerful tool that could enable the community to perform a comprehensive “fact-check” of posts.
An ambitious plan, but as with all the latest changes on this platform, hastily made, with no clear vision, and entirely ineffective.
CN became a priority to the new owner but also an excuse for the constant spread of misinformation or disinformation and hatred tolerance rising on the platform.
Musk responded often to criticism over the platform’s weakness in confronting fake news and public manipulation, by mentioning how CN exposes these practices and self-regulates. CN is indeed doing this, but at an insignificant rate due to constraints in its design and forces that discovered how to manipulate votes and prevent notes from appearing on the platform.
The notes that reach the rank of helpful are actually a small exception in a barrage of intentionally misleading posts, fake news, and blatant lies published non-stop while nobody is held accountable.
This was my post mentioning my experience with CN on X.com and why I think it failed to achieve any significant purpose:
Just one day after posting this tweet, I was permanently suspended from Musk’s X.com without a reason given besides an automated response about how I broke unidentified rules of X.com when using the platform.
This is not the issue at hand, though, but the Community Notes system, which appears to be severely lacking efficiency in terms of protecting the users of Twitter from issues like misinformation, scams, fake images, fake news, etc.
The Fake Satoshi Posts
After this incident, I found it necessary to express my disappointment and share my critique of the service.
I attempted to add a note to the account using the tag @satoshi, which I suspect might have been utilized by an individual associated with the BSV cryptocurrency, an account that later X.com suspended. (At the moment, my access to CN is limited, and I’m unable to retrieve my notes. As a result, I cannot provide this particular note in this story.)
Community Notes failed massively at this moment since my note was downvoted and deemed not helpful, undoubtedly suggesting that vote manipulation by individuals who support BSV, and with access to community notes, organized to downvote the note.
It is clear that BSV-related accounts orchestrated this manipulation of Community Notes, but it was also a display of a vulnerability of the system, clearly showcasing how easily manipulated this service is.
If you’re unfamiliar with BSV (Bitcoin SV), you can learn more about it here:
https://medium.com/p/61d8193cdc50
Whoever was using this account, it was not Satoshi Nakamoto, creator of Bitcoin, who abandoned the project in 2010 with the last ever publicly-known communication recorded in 2011.
Since then, several individuals tried to claim they were Satoshi, but without providing any evidence of their involvement.
Community Notes was gamed by shady forces operating on X.com to promote their interests and hide their deceptive actions.
This wasn’t a normal downvote but a successful attempt to silence the truth from the platform by accounts organized for this particular purpose.
They had obviously found out how to manipulate CN to their advantage.
Since then, the @ satoshi account on Twitter has been suspended.
Most Notes Never Reach The Status Of Helpful
The system is entirely obscure.
To identify notes that are helpful to a wide range of people, notes require agreement between contributors who have sometimes disagreed in their past ratings. (source)
Because of this rule, most community notes will remain pending, and never reach any status at all.
Furthermore, some notes never reach enough votes simply because they never reach enough contributors to vote on them.
There is no expiration day either, when a note does not receive votes.
Dangerous posts containing video editing with AI improvement circulate X, and notes on them remain undecided.
Users Delete Posts After Tagged With A Note
Most users are likely aware of this, as X.com sends notifications to alert users when a post they’ve previously read or interacted with has been tagged with a community note.
And still, the author can delete this post to hide the approach they used to manipulate public opinion.
Nobody complains since the original post is now gone, and nobody remembers what this was about.
Notes May Take 20 Days Or More To Reach The Status Of Helpful
In the meantime:
- These posts have already caused damage by transferring invalid/misleading information,
- The OP has already received payment for these posts (payments occur every two weeks) despite Musk’s claims that these posts will get demonetized. Does X ask for that money back? I highly doubt that.
CN Members Constantly Attempt To Manipulate The Process
Recent example:
And more notes (counted more than 15) attempting to discredit the relevant information provided by the original one:
Notes objecting to the proposed note are usually coercive and without substance attempting to manipulate votes.
Sometimes indeed no note is needed, and a personal opinion usually is subjective, yet these No Note Needed (NNN) notes on most occasions are entirely dishonest, and they represent notes that are actually not needed at all.
The Platform Has Lost Its Credibility
The CN process is fundamentally flawed and does not assist in the rise of fake news and propaganda on X.com.
Accounts criticizing the platform get censored, and arrogance triumphs.
Information on X spreads faster than the speed of light, and the reach of some individuals who often Musk retweets and comments, is unreasonably high, especially when we consider who they are and what they represent.
Community Notes did not transform X.com into a safe place in terms of objectively addressing the issue of misinformation, as fake news and the spread of extreme ideologies have only increased.
In Conclusion
It was actually a relief my X.com account was suspended, and I am not interested in using it again in case anyone over there realizes they had no grounds to do so. X persists in not stating the reason, leaving me to suspect what it might have been.
The platform acts entirely antithetical to Musk’s claims regarding free speech, and Musk has been constantly contradicting his very own words as well.
Actually, Elon Musk has only achieved making Mark Zuckerberg look like a saint.
Authoritarianism is on the rise, and the people must this time realize who are those benefiting from the spread of hate and chaos.
The ineffectiveness of Community Notes raises ethical questions as it appears to serve as a diversion from an alternative agenda.
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