PanamaTimes

Saturday, Jul 05, 2025

Elon Musk says Twitter's Birdwatch feature will be renamed 'Community Notes' and is aimed at 'improving information accuracy' amid growing content-moderation concerns

Elon Musk says Twitter's Birdwatch feature will be renamed 'Community Notes' and is aimed at 'improving information accuracy' amid growing content-moderation concerns

The tool, which allows users to add context notes to potentially misleading posts, went public last month after a pilot program in the US.

Elon Musk tweeted Saturday about an expansion of Twitter's Birdwatch feature that he said has "incredible potential for improving information accuracy" as the new CEO faces ongoing concerns over content inaccuracies and moderation on the social media platform.

Birdwatch will allow users to add context to notes on potentially misleading posts. It also will be renamed "Community Notes," and Musk tweeted that the tool has "incredible potential for improving information accuracy" on the platform.

The billionaire made the remarks in response to a tweet from Twitter Vice President of Product Keith Coleman who commented on Birdwatch's "usage spike over the past week."

Coleman's tweet included a thread written by Alex Mahadevan, director of Mediawise, that cited publicly available data showing that the number of Birdwatch notes had increased to 131 a day, up from 45 per day prior, during the five days since Musk's purchase of Twitter.

Birdwatch notes first became public to users in early October, after the feature was launched in a pilot program in the US in January 2021. According to a blog post written by Coleman on the Twitter website, the feature "allows people to identify information in Tweets they believe is misleading and write notes that provide informative context."

"We believe this approach has the potential to respond quickly when misleading information spreads, adding context that people trust and find valuable," Coleman wrote.

Among tweets where Birdwatch notes have appeared in the past week is a post from Musk himself. He claimed "Twitter has had a massive drop in revenue, due to activist groups pressuring advertisers, even though nothing has changed with content moderation."

He continued: "Extremely messed up! They're trying to destroy free speech in America."

A Birdwatch note currently affixed to that tweet states: "Multiple advertisers have confirmed they are pausing spending while they see what direction Elon Musk takes with the platform," and links to a Guardian article about General Mills temporarily pulling advertising.

The uptick comes as hundreds of employees reportedly were cut off from operating Twitter's content-moderation system earlier week, leaving just 15 staffers with access to the program, Bloomberg reported.

Musk later promised civil rights leaders he would restore access to the content-moderation system, and told advertisers he is considering creating tiers of content moderation similar to movie ratings, according to The Financial Times.

Initially, posts were only visible on a separate Birdwatch site, before they were integrated into the platform. According to the company, "Birdwatch is made up of independent contributors, and individual notes are never written by Twitter."

"This is intentional, as it helps ensure our efforts to address potentially misleading information are informed by a diverse group of people who use our service," the company wrote in its October 2022 blog post.

Users can rate notes as "Helpful" or "Not Helpful," and notes are surfaced publicly based on an algorithm that Twitter shared openly on GitHub.

Newsletter

Related Articles

PanamaTimes
0:00
0:00
Close
AI Raises Alarms Over Long-Term Job Security
House Oversight Committee Subpoenas Former Jill Biden Aide Amid Investigation into Alleged Concealment of President Biden's Cognitive Health
OpenAI Secures Multimillion-Dollar AI Contracts with Pentagon, India, and Grab
Brazilian Congress Rejects Lula's Proposed Tax Increase on Financial Transactions
Landslide in Bello, Colombia, Results in Multiple Casualties
Papa Johns pizza surge near the Pentagon tipped off social media before Trump's decisive Iran strike
Juncker Criticizes EU Inaction on Trump Tariffs
Minnesota Lawmaker Melissa Hortman and Husband Killed in Targeted Attack; Senator John Hoffman and Wife Injured
Wreck of $17 Billion San José Galleon Identified Off Colombia After 300 Years
Sole Survivor of Air India Crash Recounts Escape
Coinbase CEO Warns Bitcoin Could Supplant US Dollar Amid Mounting National Debt
UK and EU Reach Agreement on Gibraltar's Schengen Integration
Israeli Finance Minister Imposes Banking Penalties on Palestinians
U.S. Inflation Rises to 2.4% in May Amid Trade Tensions
Trump's Policies Prompt Decline in Chinese Student Enrollment in U.S.
Global Oceans Near Record Temperatures as CO₂ Levels Climb
Trump Announces U.S.-China Trade Deal Covering Rare Earths
Smuggled U.S. Fuel Funds Mexican Cartels Amid Crackdown
Protests Erupt in Los Angeles with Symbolic Flag Burning
Trump Administration Issues New Travel Ban Targeting 12 Countries
Man Group Mandates Full-Time Office Return for Quantitative Analysts
JPMorgan Warns Analysts Against Accepting Future-Dated Job Offers
Builder.ai Faces Legal Scrutiny Amid Financial Misreporting Allegations
Japan Grapples with Rice Shortage Amid Soaring Prices
Goldman Sachs Reduces Risk Exposure Amid Market Volatility
HSBC Chairman Mark Tucker to Return to AIA as Non-Executive Chair
Israel Confirms Arming Gaza Clan to Counter Hamas Influence
Judge Blocks Trump's Ban on International Students at Harvard
Trump Proposes Travel Ban on 'Uncontrolled' Countries
Panama Port Owner Balances US-China Pressures
Trump Administration Accused of Obstructing Deportation Cases
Trump’s China Strategy Remains a Geopolitical Puzzle
Eurozone Inflation Falls Below ECB Target to 1.9%
Call for a New Chapter in Globalisation Emerges
Blackstone and Rivals Diverge on Private Equity Strategy
Mayor’s Security Officer Implicated | Shocking New Details Emerge in NYC Kidnapping Case
Bangkok Ranked World's Top City for Remote Work in 2025
Denmark Increases Retirement Age to 70, Setting a European Precedent
Netanyahu Accuses Western Leaders of 'Emboldening Hamas'
Escalating Trade Tensions and Market Reactions
OnlyFans Reportedly in Talks for $8 Billion Sale
JBS Gains Shareholder Approval for U.S. Stock Listing
Booz Allen Hamilton to Cut 2,500 Jobs Amid Federal Spending Reductions
Trump Signs Executive Orders to Accelerate Nuclear Energy Development
Harvard Temporarily Blocks Trump Administration's International Student Ban
Nippon Steel Forms Partnership with U.S. Steel, Headquarters to Remain in Pittsburgh
Trump Expands Tariff Threats to Apple and Samsung Devices
Oracle and OpenAI Plan $40 Billion Nvidia Chip Purchase for AI Data Center
Trump Threatens 50% Tariff on EU Goods, Markets React
The Daily Debate: The Fall of the Dollar — Strategic Reset or Economic Self-Destruction?
×