On 4th April, X (formerly Twitter) announced that the Community Notes program is now available for users in India. It is a feature on X that allows users to participate in the fact-checking process of the posts shared on the platform. The rollout for Indian users holds significance as there is a lot of misinformation related to India on social media. Furthermore, it is essential to note that the polling for the upcoming Lok Sabha Elections is close, allowing users to debunk propaganda posts on social media.
X’s affiliate handle, Community Notes, said in a post, “Welcome new contributors in India. Our first contributors are joining today, and we’ll be expanding over time. As always, we’ll monitor quality to ensure that notes are found helpful by people from different points of view. Community Notes now has contributors in 69 countries worldwide, and we’re adding more regularly.”
As the post suggests, only a handful of people will be invited to participate in the program in India. Quoting the post, 𝕏 owner Elon Musk said, “Community Notes are now active in India!”
The users from India have been raising their voices over exclusion from the feature. Several X users who applied for the feature have been waiting for almost a year for the feature to be available for them. Less than a month ago, OpIndia reported how a popular X user, ‘theskindoctor13,’ asked Elon Musk why it was unavailable for Indians. The post was stamped with a misleading ‘Community Note’ that Indians could enrol for, but it did not clarify that Indians could neither post nor vote for Community Notes. The note read, “This is false. Anyone using X can sign up to contribute to community notes, including Indians!”
However, after the backlash, the Note was changed. The new Note read, “While community notes are available for some Indian users, major telcos are not considered Twitter trusted carriers, making it impossible for most Indian users to sign up for community notes.” Still, it did not clarify that those who had enrolled successfully could not post or vote for the notes.
The feature was rolled out in December 2022 to enable users to fact-check posts on social media. Users from several countries can post and vote on the notes, but all users can and will see them. With time, X added several improvements to the feature. If a note appears on one post, it will appear on all posts with the same media or text, making it easier to spot the misinformation on the platform. Earlier, the feature was known as Birdwatch but was later renamed to Community Notes.
How to sign up
First of all, login to your X account and click on https://twitter.com/i/flow/join-birdwatch. A pop-up like the image below will open. Click on ‘Join Community Notes’.
In Step 1 of 3, X will check if your account meets the program requirements that include No X Rule violation since 1st January 2023, the account must be at least six months old, the account should be linked to a verified phone number which should be a trusted phone carrier and not associated with other Community Notes account. If all requirements are met, click on ‘Next’.
In the Step 2 of 3, agree to the Community Notes guidelines and click ‘Next’.
In the next step, read Community Notes data sharing, X Rules, Terms and Privacy Policy details. Once you are done, click on ‘Agree and Finish’.
After completing these processes, you will be added to the list, but you won’t be enrolled into the program immediately. X will send a message to the user after the account has been activated for Community Notes. Meanwhile, you can pick languages by clicking ‘Pick languages that you speak’.
Choose one or more languages and click ‘Done’.
As per X, it has more applicants than available slots for community notes, therefore it randomly admits accounts to the program, to reduce the likelihood that contributors would be predominantly from one ideology, background, or interest space.
It further states, “applicants from countries with larger user bases may experience longer waiting times between signup and admission, as random admissions are drawn from country-specific waitlists.” As India is a large country with large user base, it means that Indians who apply for community notes will have to wait longer.
Community Notes and Indian Elections
There are two ways to look at the rollout of Community Notes just weeks before the first phase of the 2024 Lok Sabha Elections. If we look at it positively, it will help to debunk the fake news and misinformation regarding the elections. Especially in the case of EVMs, the feature can help debunk the misinformation about them being unreliable.
On the other hand, it is only available for a handful of Indians. Such a feature in the hands of propagandists and people or groups with vested interests can become a disaster. Notably, all contributions to Community Notes are anonymized, which means there is no way to know who posted a certain community note.