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The social media company will use its Community Notes program to moderate lies about the election, but cracks are already appearing.
By Kate Conger
Reporting from San Francisco
Less than an hour after President Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic presidential nominee on Sunday, X users falsely claimed that she was “not eligible” to run for the job because her parents were not born in the United States.
The false claim spread temporarily. Beneath a post containing a false claim about Ms. Harris, which was shared thousands of times and garnered around 137,000 views, another X user temporarily added a warning that the post was and that Ms. Harris was eligible for apply as a US citizen. .
“Kamala Harris was born in Oakland, California, United States,” the note said. “That makes her a born citizen. Eligible for President of the United States.
But in dozens of messages containing the same misinformation, no such correction appeared.
Elon Musk removed most content moderation regulations on X since the acquisition of the social network in 2022. Instead, it relied on a program called Community Notes, which allows an organization of users to write fact-checking labels and vote. if they are useful. Other approved people are added to misleading messages through an algorithm. X has decided the program is enough to maximize incorrect information about the November presidential election, two other people familiar with the company’s plans said.
But Community Notes is consistent. Even with a correct type label, misleading claims can spread in X, according to disinformation researchers. And since users of all political persuasions have to agree on how to correct posts, some comments and fact-checks on debatable topics never appear.
Nearly 8,000 immigration fact checks were written in Community Notes, but 471 of them were approved through users and made public on X, according to MediaWise, a media literacy program at the Poynter Institute. Only four percent of the network’s stories on abortion have been made visible.
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