2024-10-30 21:26:45| Engadget
Its no secret that X has become an even bigger cesspool of misleading information, unchecked claims and flat-out falsities since Elon Musk took over. Two new reports from The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and The Washington Post reveals that the safeguards Musk removed and replaced arent controlling Xs problems with misinformation.
The CCDH published a report on its investigation into Xs Community Notes feature, a user-driven reporting system in which anonymous users write and rate correction for misleading posts. Researchers took a sample of 283 misleading election posts from the social media platform that received proposed Community Notes between January 1 and August 25. The report says that 209 of those misleading sample posts did not show the Community Notes correction to all X users. Even more alarming, the 209 misleading posts in question racked up 2.2 billion views.
The Washington Post followed the CCDHs report with its own investigation into Xs Community Notes feature and found that Xs problems with misinformation go far beyond the election.
Former President Donald Trump made the bold claim during his only presidential debate with Vice President Kamala Harris that Haitians were eating peoples pets in Springfield, Ohio. Moderator and ABC news anchor David Muir corrected Trumps statement as false because no such cases were reported to local police or government entities. The fact checking website Politifact rated Trumps claim its lowest false rating of Pants on Fire. That didnt stop this falsehood from spreading across X among conservative-leaning users.
The Post found that an account called End Wokeness with a following of 3.1 million X users started disseminating the former Presidents claim about Haitian immigrants. The post remained unchecked for four days until one Community Notes user flagged the post as incorrect, citing five different articles to back up the correction. Unfortunately, the note failed to garner enough votes to label the post as false and it went uncorrected. As of Wednesday, the post is still on @EndWokeness account with a Community Note where its racked up 4.9 million views.
Musks account hasnt helped the problem. The Post reports that hes become one of the X users most often targeted with proposed Community Notes with one of 10 posts receiving a proposed correction note.
The publication cited a July post from @elonmusk containing a manipulated video of Harris spouting about President Joe Bidens senility and how she became the nominee because shes the ultimate diversity hire. You know where this is going. Theres no Community Notes or correction and the post is still on X even though thousands of replies from other X users are pointing out that its a fake. The post has a whopping 136.6 million views.
The CCDH is one of Musk and Xs most vocal opponents. The British non-profit continually monitors Musks account for false posts that failed to earn a Community Note, particularly when it comes to the Presidential election. Its CEO Imran Ahmed said in August that X is failing woefully to contain the kind of algorithmically-boosted incitement that we all know can lead to real world violence. X took the CCDH to court over claims the non-profit created a scare campaign to bring down its advertising revenue. A US district court judge dismissed the lawsuit in March.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/xs-community-notes-feature-has-one-job-and-its-failing-to-do-it-202645987.html?src=rss
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