Following last month’s expansion of Twitter’s fact-checking program known as Birdwatch, Twitter announced this morning the notes that fact checkers leave on tweets will now be visible to all US users. However, this does not mean that everyone in the US will be able to participate in Birdwatch. The service had about 15,000 contributors during its pilot testing phase, and was planning to add about 1,000 more a week, Twitter said in September. If Twitter stayed on track with that goal, it would have grown to about 19,000 contributors as of this week.
The idea with Birdwatch is to add a layer of fact-checking and context to tweets that don’t necessarily violate Twitter’s rules. Instead, it can tap into gray areas to address misinformation on a range of topics beyond politics and science to clarify, correct or add more information to tweets in areas such as health, sports, entertainment and other curiosities. random that appear on the Internet – like whether someone alone or not posted a photo of a human-sized batTwitter had recently explained.
A key aspect of how this system works is Birdwatch’s bridge algorithm. This is different from typical social media algorithms that rank higher or approve based on whether or not there is a majority consensus, those that rank content higher when it reaches a certain level of engagement. Instead, Birdwatch’s algorithm appears to find consensus among groups where there are differing viewpoints before churning out crowd-sourced fact-checks for other Twitter users.
To become a Birdwatch contributor, users must first prove that they are able to write useful annotations—notes to tweets that provide further context. To determine this, Twitter assigns each potential contributor an “impact rating” score. This score starts at zero and must reach a “5” for a person to become a Birdwatch contributor – a metric that is likely to be achieved after a week of work. (The score itself can increase beyond 5 over time). Users earn points by rating Birdwatch notes which enable the note to gain a “Useful” or “Not Useful” status. They lose points when their rating ends up contrasting with the final status of the note.
Once the user unlocks the ability to write their own Birdwatch notes, they can start adding contributions and fact-checks. But the quality of their work could see them lose their contributor status once again, Twitter said. In other words, someone couldn’t get into the system by playing by the rules, then use their contributor status to amplify or spread misinformation—they’d be kicked out and have to prove themselves again to ever rejoin.
The timing of Birdwatch’s US expansion is notable, given the upcoming midterm elections. But it also comes as potential Twitter buyer Elon Musk now appears to want to go ahead with the deal. (Or at least stop the courts from reading more of his texts!) Musk’s ownership, of course, raises questions about whether projects like Birdwatch will continue, given Musk’s desire to make Twitter more of a “word of mouth” platform. cheap”. It’s unclear whether he’ll think that means diminishing the abilities of Twitter’s own content moderators, or whether he’d also want to crack down on a crowdsourced fact-checking system like this one.
In announcing the news this morning, Twitter’s Birdwatch ACCOUNT noted that, in trials, Birdwatch notes have been found useful by a wide range of people, have been considered informative independent of users’ political affiliation, and have informed people’s sharing behavior as people who have seen a note choose to “like” or retweet the tweet 15 -35% less, on average.
IN a blog post, Twitter also noted that according to the results of four surveys conducted between August 2021 and August 2022, “a person who sees a Birdwatch note is on average 20-40% less likely to agree with the substance of a potentially deceptive Tweet than someone .who only sees the Tweet.” The polls ranged in size from 3,000 to more than 19,000 participants, Twitter added, and the results remained consistent.
Twitter says US users will start seeing occasional notes in their Twitter feeds starting today. But they won’t show up all the time, as notes only appear when they’ve earned Helper status, the company notes.
