Weeks earlier than the nationwide elections in India, Elon Musk-owned X stated it’s rolling out support for posting Community Notes — the corporate’s crowd-sourced fact-checking program — in the important thing abroad market.
The first set of contributors from India will begin posting notes from as we speak and extra might be accepted over time, X stated. The contributors usually present extra context to in style posts to debunk any delusion or supply broader insights. These submissions are then rated by customers on components such because the helpfulness they supply or the accuracy.
In December 2022, the social community enabled the power for folks to take a look at Community Notes associated to posts globally, however customers from only some international locations might put up such notes.
Over time, the corporate has allowed members from totally different international locations to start out posting Community Notes to offer native context higher. With the newest rollout, this system has contributors in 69 international locations.
Last yr, the corporate additionally launched Community Notes, beforehand known as Birdwatch, for photos and movies.
India was one of the final main markets the place Community Notes had not beforehand expanded. With nationwide elections just some weeks away, many platforms are making efforts to fight potential election-related misinformation. However, X hasn’t made any particular announcement about its efforts for Indian elections.
Though Community Notes is proving useful in fact-checking posts on X, it has at instances struggled to regulate the unfold of misinformation regardless of contributors including context to tales. The program may additionally face a troublesome take a look at in India’s advanced multilingual political panorama.
Last yr, the corporate reallowed political adverts on the platform, which had been banned by the earlier administration.
Twitter/X has had a troublesome keep in the Indian market notably for its authorized battle in opposition to the federal government for ordering the platform to dam sure posts. Earlier this yr, X withheld some accounts and posts associated to farmers’ protests in India as a result of of orders from authorities. At that point, the corporate reiterated {that a} writ enchantment difficult blocking orders was nonetheless pending in the courts.
Last yr, Musk stated in a dialog with BBC that India’s social media guidelines are fairly strict and the corporate “can’t go beyond the laws of the country.”