Elon Musk's X Introduces "Community Notes" Feature In India

Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, has introduced its community notes feature in India. This initiative enables users to participate in fact-checking tweets shared by other users and intermediaries on the platform.

X's Community Notes handle tweeted, “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 around the world, and we're adding more regularly.”

X owner, Elon Musk, reposted the tweet, saying, “Community Notes now active on India!”

What are Community Notes?

According to X, Community Notes (previously known as Birdwatch) is designed to combat misinformation by inviting users from diverse backgrounds to contribute as note authors. The platform says that it does not endorse any specific viewpoint, relying instead on the collective input of contributors to determine the credibility of content.

X says that the effectiveness of community notes depends on the consensus reached by users with different perspectives. The platform identifies notes that have been deemed helpful by users across the site by analysing past ratings. This promotes transparency and accuracy by empowering the community to contribute to the verification process. 

Users will now have the opportunity to flag misinformation and provide context to tweets, thus contributing to a more informed and responsible online environment.

When was Community Notes introduced?

X introduced the feature for users to view community notes in December 2022, but initially limited posting access to only a few countries. Over time, the platform expanded this feature to include contributors from various countries, with the latest rollout extending to 69 nations. Last year, the company extended the feature to cover images and videos.

Despite its global expansion, India was one of the last major markets where X introduced community notes.