Properly, kind of – as of right this moment, all Twitter customers can view Neighborhood Notes connected to tweets, however solely US-based customers can create them, although Twitter says that extra contributors from different areas will have the ability to add notes to tweets quickly.

As per Twitter:

“Individuals in all places can now see and fee notes, serving to to make sure notes are useful to these from a variety of views. You may see notes which are at the moment rated useful and exhibiting on Twitter right here. For those who don’t see them but, don’t fret, it’s within the strategy of rolling out.”

Twitter initially launched Neighborhood Notes – then known as ‘Birdwatch’- in January final 12 months, as a way to increase its efforts to fight misinformation in tweets.

As you possibly can see on this instance, by Neighborhood Notes, contributors, who’re authorised customers inside the Twitter group, can add contextual notes to tweets which will comprise doubtlessly deceptive data.

Tweets with these notes then present up with an indicator in-stream, alerting customers to the extra data. 

The concept is that by leaving it to the Twitter group to offer notes on tweets, that may allow Twitter to take a extra hands-off method to moderation, as a result of it received’t be Twitter’s personal staff that should dictate the principles, as such, however ‘the folks’ will get to resolve on what’s and isn’t acceptable, by way of crowdsourced notes.

Which new Twitter chief Elon Musk, for one, thinks is one of the best ways ahead for the app.

Musk says that Neighborhood Notes ‘could have a robust affect on falsehoods’ within the app, as a result of it’s going to allow a broad vary of inputs to fee the accuracy and reality of statements made inside tweets, which may even, at the very least theoretically, take away political bias, which Musk believes has corrupted Twitter’s moderation efforts prior to now. 

However now, with extra contributors, and extra notes flowing in, Twitter’s customers could have their say, with the courtroom of arbitration being those that are members in the exact same discussions, making it a greater illustration of group sentiment and acceptance, somewhat than a ruling by Twitter’s inside administration. 

In some ways, it’s just like Reddit’s up and downvotes, with the group in a position to dictate how posts are displayed within the app by voting on every. Neighborhood Notes is totally different, in that it additionally contains contextual notes, and it received’t affect the show of tweets in the identical means. However by letting customers add notes, and vote on the accuracy of these amendments, that ought to assist to offer precious tips on divisive feedback, which may assist to facilitate extra understanding and context.

If it really works as meant. There’s some threat that the instrument might be used to focus on partisan views, and bury opposing views, with armies of activists doubtlessly downvoting opposing opinions to cut back their affect.

If, for instance, a tweet had been to say that ‘the COVID vaccine is unsafe’, teams devoted to boosting this message may all coordinate to vote that the word is ‘useful’, which may then see it acquire traction as a supply of reality, whether or not that assertion is definitely true or not.

The chance of crowdsourcing reality on this means is that you simply threat amplifying, or validating what folks imagine, or need, to be true, which isn’t at all times the identical as the reality itself. Possibly, if sufficient folks contribute, that’ll play out as hoped, however there’s a degree of threat on this method, whereas it additionally received’t remedy the entire app’s issues with misinformation and dangerous messaging, as Musk has seemingly implied.

But it surely could be value a shot – and if it really works as meant, Twitter may ultimately put extra tweet rating emphasis on these notes, to make sure that the very best info will get extra amplification within the app.

We’ll discover out, with all customers now in a position to see and vote on the worth of Neighborhood Notes within the app, and extra notes contributors being onboarded quickly.