AI Bot’s False Community Note Sparks Misinformation Storm on X
A Community Note on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, recently sparked controversy. The note incorrectly identified a video as being from the recent No Kings protests, when in fact it was from an event in 2017. The misinformation was brought to light by NewsGuard and the BBC.
The note was drafted by an AI bot named 'Zesty Walnut Grackle', developed by a team of researchers including Saeedeh Mohammadi and Kristina Skutilova from University College Dublin, Narges Chinichian and Hannah Doyal from SPICED Academy Berlin, and others from Trinity College Dublin and Technological University Dublin. However, the specific developers of the bot remain unidentified.
The video in question was part of a wave of clips circulating online last month, showing large crowds gathered for the No Kings protests. The incorrect Community Note was proposed for an MSNBC clip showing crowds in Boston. The note claimed the video was from 2017, when it was actually from October's protests.
Community Notes, introduced by Elon Musk in 2022 after layoffs of fact-checking staff, require user consensus to appear publicly. Most notes never gain enough support to be shown due to lack of agreement or low ratings. The draft note on the MSNBC clip was visible to certain users but never approved by X's moderation system. It was this draft that sparked public accusations of manipulation against MSNBC, including a now-deleted tweet from Senator Ted Cruz.
A study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that adding a Community Note can decrease a post's reach. This suggests that such notes can have a significant impact on the visibility and spread of information on the platform.
The incident highlights the potential pitfalls of relying on user-generated content and AI bots for fact-checking, as Elon Musk has done since introducing Community Notes. While the system aims to harness the wisdom of the crowd, it also leaves room for misinformation and manipulation. As the platform continues to evolve, so too will the challenges and solutions surrounding content moderation and fact-checking.
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