Twitter Community Notes programme: Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk spar over Twitter’s Community Notes programme

Twitter co-founder and former CEO Jack Dorsey appears to be closely following new CEO Elon Musk’s every move.

In a tweet, Musk said there is a need for Twitter to become the most accurate source of information for the world.

Dorsey asked who would find out if the information was accurate, and Musk replied that Twitter people would judge it via Community Notes (formerly known as Birdwatch).

On Sunday, Musk called Birdwatch — a pilot of a new community-driven approach to help address misinformation on Twitter, which launched in the US last year.

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Musk and Dorsey followed up the exchange with tweets discussing the pilot’s name, role and terminology. According to Dorsey, Birdwatch is a “better name” and “more informative” a much better goal than Musk’s proposal to make Twitter the “more accurate” source of information.

Musk was not amused and said the term “birdwatching gave him the creeps.” He added: “Not everything should have “bird” in the name! Lots of groups of birds fighting amongst themselves on Twitter. Angry Birds.”

Dorsey called Musk’s Community Notes term “the most boring Facebook name ever,” taking a look at the social media platform.

What role do Community Notes play?

Community Notes (formerly Birdwatch) aims to identify information in tweets it believes is misleading and counter it with notes that provide informative context. Twitter believes this approach has the potential to respond quickly when misleading information spreads, adding context that can be trusted and is valid.

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Further, Twitter intends to make annotations visible directly in tweets to everyone, following a consensus from a broad and diverse group of contributors.

In this first phase of the pilot, notes will only be visible in a particular community note
site, where participants can also rate the usefulness of notes added by other contributors. These notes are being kept separate from Twitter for now until it can produce context that people find useful and relevant.

Additionally, annotations will not affect how people see tweets or other system recommendations from Twitter.

Twitter will never die


Dorsey, who founded Twitter in 2006, assured everyone that Twitter was here to stay and that it will never die. Twitter user @oranicuuh tweeted “.
@jack— Just let me know when I log into your new app. I forgive you for the untimely death of the thing you created, even though I was upset about the reality. were a fun 12 years. since 8th grade. ugh. time to get the hell out of here.” To which Dorsey responded by saying “def will never die”

The user was referring to a new social media platform released by Dorsey called Bluesky.

Dorsey apologizes

Facing criticism on social media over the Twitter deal, Dorsey on Saturday apologized to fired Twitter employees, saying he grew the micro-blogging platform too quickly.

Earlier, reports said some Twitter employees had expressed distaste for Dorsey following the hostile takeover by Musk, who has fired almost 50% of Twitter’s workforce.

“I am grateful and love everyone who has ever worked on Twitter. I don’t expect it to be mutual at this point…or ever…and I understand that,” he added.

Dorsey, who founded Twitter, left last November, handing the baton to Parag Agrawal, who was among the first to be fired by Musk after the acquisition was completed.

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