Twitter is rolling out Community Notes worldwide, allowing everyone to view and rate fact checks contributed by other users.
In a thread on Twitter, the company announces the feature formerly known as Birdwatch is broadly available.
The thread goes on to explain Community Notes in more detail, along with instructions on how to become a contributor.
What Are Twitter Community Notes?
Community Notes are an open-source solution for fact-checking and providing additional context to content people publish on Twitter.
People sign up to become Community Notes moderators, which grants them the ability to add notes to tweets and rate notes from other mods.
All users can view notes on tweets and the rating they receive, which is a sign of social proof that the information is valid.
Community Notes are one of the few recent additions to Twitter that Elon Musk openly praised upon taking ownership of the company.
Community Notes is a gamechanger for improving accuracy on Twitter!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 10, 2022
Community Notes launched in 2021 as Birdwatch, and was promptly rebranded when Musk took over.
Previously, only US Twitter users could view and rate notes. Now, Community Notes are accessible worldwide.
In addition, Twitter plans to add moderators from other countries as part of this expansion. Here’s how you can sign up.
How To Sign Up For Twitter Community Notes
There are three steps to joining Twitter’s Community Notes program.
Step One: Meet Requirements
To join the Community Notes pilot program, your Twitter account must have:
- No recent notice of Twitter Rules violations
- Joined Twitter at least six months ago
- A verified phone number from a trusted phone carrier
Step Two: Agree To Community Values
Next, you must acknowledge you agree to uphold the following community values:
- Contribute to building understanding
- Act in good faith
- Be helpful, even to those who disagree
Step Three: Agree To Public Contributions
In the third and final step, Twitter asks you to agree to the terms that all your contributions and ratings will be made public.
The agreement reads:
“We want everyone to be able to understand and evaluate how Community Notes works. So all your notes and rankings are publicly available, even if your account is protected.”
When you finish the last step, Twitter will review your application and notify you when you’re accepted into the Community Notes program.
In the meantime, you can view contributions from other moderators to get an idea of the types of notes people find helpful.
Featured Image: Screenshot from Twitter.com/CommunityNotes, December 2022.
