This is in no way going to replace the rigorous work done by dedicated fact-checking organizations, which are faster and have a pool of certified experts without any of the consensus limitations that X has imposed on Community Notes.
“Essentially, it requires a ‘cross-ideological agreement on truth,’ and in an increasingly partisan environment, achieving that consensus is almost impossible,” says Poynter Institute in an analysis of the Community Notes system. Another critical flaw is X’s dramatically disproportionate implementation of its moderation, safety, and security features.
For example, Twitter has been repeatedly called out for censoring critical voices targeting the government in markets like India and the Middle East, where content shared by journalists and media houses is regularly pulled or withheld at the behest of the government. As the 2024 elections inch closer, in both India and the U.S., the stakes are only going to get higher.
In hindsight, Community Notes indirectly pass the onus of fact-checking to its most prolific users with a certain level of expertise instead of having a dedicated trust and safety team do that job. Elon Musk famously gutted the company’s safety team soon after he took over, but he’s now rebuilding it as X is opening up to political ads in its home market after imposing a ban in 2019.