X users dissect the platform's new Community Notes feature, share pros and cons

Priyans Murarka feels passionate about a number of subjects whether it is air qualitymdashan issue tackled by his company ActiveBuildings or electric vehicles EVs and Indiarsquos growing interest in them He is the face behind an active account on X which connects EV owners and enthusiasts and tracks the latest developments Memes GIFs pie charts and mapsmdashthe cofounder uses them all to simplify the conversation around these newage carsAs he scrolls through his timeline Murarka sometimes wades into murky territorymdashinaccurate arguments about pollution in Mumbai vs Delhi and fake news about EVs As a frustrated subject matter expert he wished he could issue corrections so others on X would walk away with a more accurate understanding of things And now he canmdashthrough the platformrsquos Community Notes CN featureCNs are digital postits slapped onto tweets in a bid to offer more context clarity correct inaccuracies and dispel misinformation These notes arenrsquot written by X but rather usersmdashan approach quite unlike typical content moderation systems followed by social media platforms They rely on thirdparty companies to review problematic posts CN allows users to be the vigilantes of their timelinesThe pilot test of the feature revealed that the majority found CNs helpful and 20 to 40 per cent were less likely to agree with misleading posts after being exposed to a note People like usmdashnonexperts essentiallymdashwill lead the charge provided we ourselves have not violated Xrsquos rules of late X is not alone in this approach Wikipedia and Reddit are powered by a similar ethos of crowdsourcing and collaboration As the social media giant unveils the feature in India users like Murarka have keenly signed up to be contributors many of whom hope that it will help counter misinformation in the runup to the 2024 Lok Sabha electionsVenkata Satish Guttula whose application was approved last week has long been concerned about how rapidly fake news can spread often outpacing the dissemination of the truth The cyber security consultant quotes the iconic Mark Twain maxim A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting its shoes onGuttula highlights that in most cases CNs kick in after posts with fake news have gone viral By the time the note is attached to a particular post thousands of users have already absorbed and accepted the fake information as truth and reposted it to their own followers ldquoWhen a Note is added to a post debunking it the app should show the Note to everyone who read the post beforerdquo he opinesArchit Mehta a scholar at Georgetown University USA was curious to understand how the feature works After his application was approved Mehtamdashlike other usersmdashhas had to rate Notes written by others before he can write his own ldquoX should clearly state how many Notes one has to rate before reaching the desired Rating Impactrdquo says Mehta who was formerly a journalist in India If this detail is not specified users could perceive the CNs process as arbitrary and feel discouraged to participate as contributors he saysA Masterrsquos student at the Universityrsquos Communication Culture and Technology program Mehta has observed certain design flaws in the feature At present Notes appear below posts which means X users are likely to read the contents of the post before they are made aware of missing context or corrections ldquoIf the objective is to ensure corrections are viewed first CNs should be placed on toprdquo he recommends Mehta turns our attention to another gap We donrsquot know how many people actually end up reading or even viewing Notes on their timelines In a post that has earned 196 million views controversial influencer Andrew Tate cries foul about a cyber attack on the ship that crashed into Baltimore bridge in Marchmdashmere speculation questioned by an accompanying Note ldquoX should share metrics of engagement on CNs so that there is greater transparencyrdquo he saysEnergy and climate policy expert Siddharth Singh too wants to play a part in the fight against misinformation in India which he describes as being weaponised and ldquospread on an industry scalerdquo Singh acknowledges the featurersquos limitations as well as its possible strengths ldquoI understand this feature can be misused especially when used by masses to gang up on individualsrdquo says Singh author of The Great Smog of India ldquoHowever I will reserve judgement on how it works in India until it truly rolls out In balance having CN as a feature is better than its absencerdquoldquoCN will only be successful if the context it produces is found to be helpful and appropriate by a wide range of people with diverse views This wonrsquot be true if it can be taken over by a single group or ideology or used in an abusive mannerrdquo reads an answer on Xrsquos FAQ sheet about the feature The social media giant even has a document on the need for a lsquoDiversity of perspectivesrsquo that a Notersquos usefulness is defined by whether people across the political spectrum across differing ideologies resonate with itOpen source researcher and investigator Kalim Ahmed says that it is an oversimplification of things having observed attempts by Indian political influencers to game the system Key to this manipulation and abuse is Xrsquos invitation to users to rate CNs as helpful or not helpful Ahmed alerts us to a potentially harmful situation where badfaith actors may direct their followers to a CN they have written to target another user urging them to rate the Note as being helpful There is also a lack of clarity on how X may respond if governmentsmdashlike ordinary usersmdashseek additional reviews about CNs to their own posts that they disagree with or even order the platform to take them downldquoJust because the owner of X has some good intentions it doesnrsquot necessarily convert into good executionrdquo says Ahmed ldquoIndia is one of Xrsquos largest markets and this will be the real test for CNs where certain parties have unlimited resources to deploy on commandrdquo He commends X for making the CN source code public and that its data can also be downloaded to conduct longterm studies to gauge the featurersquos impact ldquoLike any other social media feature it has its pros and cons but it is definitely not the onestop solution that Musk wants us to believerdquo Ahmed concludes