Responding to the European Commission's request to detail the steps taken to combat disinformation amidst the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, Elon Musk's X (formerly Twitter) has explained how it is using the controversial Community Notes feature to offer context on posts, videos, and photos being shared on the platform.
What Happened: In response to recent terrorist attacks on Israel by Hamas and allegations of an increase in misinformation on social media, X CEO Linda Yaccarino detailed the steps taken to address these issues.
Yaccarino emphasized the responsibility of ensuring access to accurate, real-time information and safeguarding the platform for all users.
According to Yaccarino, the open-source Community Notes feature has been used to post more than 700 notes on posts related to the Israel-Hamas war. Overall, these notes are visible on more than 5,000 posts on X.
Yaccarino said that these notes appear at a median time of five hours from the creation of the post. These notes also show up within minutes on other posts consisting of related or matching photos or videos.
In addition to this, Yaccarino also noted that X has "responded to more than 80 takedown requests received in the EU".
Why It Matters: This comes in the backdrop of concerns regarding spreading fake content and disinformation about the ongoing Israel-Hamas conflict on social media platforms like X.
Erroneous flagging of a graphic video, shared by Donald Trump Jr., by the Community Notes feature has sparked scrutiny.
The video, purportedly showing Hamas fighters attacking Israeli citizens, was incorrectly flagged as old and not from Israel by the user-generated fact-checking system.
While Yaccarino is relying on the Community Notes feature as one of its weapons in fighting disinformation on the platform, the Trump Jr. incident shows that it could be a better system. Instead of preventing disinformation, this crowd-sourced system has actually perpetuated it.
Image Source – Shutterstock
With inputs from Benzinga Neuro.
Check out more of Benzinga's Consumer Tech coverage by following this link.
© 2024 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.
Trade confidently with insights and alerts from analyst ratings, free reports and breaking news that affects the stocks you care about.
