Elon Musk apparently not believes that crowdsourcing fact-checking by Neighborhood Notes can by no means be manipulated and is, thus, one of the simplest ways to right dangerous posts on his social media platform X.
Neighborhood Notes are presupposed to be added to posts to restrict misinformation unfold after a broad consensus is reached amongst X customers with various viewpoints on what corrections are wanted. However Musk now claims a “repair” is required to stop supposedly outdoors influencers from allegedly gaming the system.
“Sadly, @CommunityNotes is more and more being gamed by governments & legacy media,” Musk wrote on X. “Working to repair this.”
Musk’s announcement got here after Neighborhood Notes have been added to X posts discussing a poll producing favorable scores for Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That ballot was carried out by a non-public Ukrainian firm in partnership with a state college whose supervisory board was appointed by the Ukrainian authorities, creating what Musk appears to view as a battle of curiosity.
Though different impartial polling lately documented an identical improve in Zelenskyy’s approval score, NBC Information reported, the particular ballot cited in X notes contradicted Donald Trump’s declare that Zelenskyy is unpopular, and Musk appeared to anticipate X notes ought to as an alternative be offering context to defend Trump’s viewpoint. Musk even prompt that by pointing to the supposedly government-linked ballot in Neighborhood Notes, X customers have been spreading misinformation.
“It ought to be completely apparent {that a} Zelensky[y]-controlled ballot about his OWN approval just isn’t credible!!” Musk wrote on X.
Musk’s assault on Neighborhood Notes is considerably shocking. Though he has all the time maintained that Neighborhood Notes aren’t “excellent,” he has defended Neighborhood Notes by a number of European Union probes difficult their effectiveness and declared that the objective of the crowdsourcing effort was to make X “by far one of the best supply of fact on Earth.” At CES 2025, X CEO Linda Yaccarino bragged that Neighborhood Notes are “good for the world.”
Yaccarino invited viewers members to “give it some thought as this world collective consciousness protecting one another accountable at world scale in actual time,” however only one month later, Musk is immediately casting doubts on that characterization whereas the European Union continues to probe X.
Maybe most importantly, Musk beforehand insisted as lately as final yr that Neighborhood Notes couldn’t be manipulated, even by Musk. He strongly disputed a 2024 report from the Middle for Countering Digital Hate that claimed that toxic X users were downranking accurate notes that they personally disagreed with, claiming any try at gaming Neighborhood Notes would stick out like a “neon sore thumb.”