Twitter is expanding Birdwatch, its crowdsourced “misinformation” debunking tool, to 50 percent of all U.S. Twitter users.
that Twitter is expanding Birdwatch, its community-powered “misinformation” debunking service that it “for the people, by the people.” The service will now be expanded as Twitter prepares to include 50 percent of all U.S. users in the service, meaning that in the coming days it is likely that you will see notes added to tweets in your timeline written by Birdwatch contributors providing additional information or context.
Beginning this week, Twitter will accept 1,000 new contributors per week to Birdwatch adding to the roughly 15,000 users already taking part in the feature. Contributors’ work will be more visible on the timelines, with Twitter aiming to roll out the features to 50 percent of all U.S. users. Birdwatch was launched as a pilot product in 2021 and billed as a community approach to reduce what it considers “misinformation” across Twitter. Contributors, who remain anonymous, are able to add notes that appear below tweets or link to outside sources. Keith Coleman, Twitter’s vice president of product, recently told reports that the company has a wide range of misinformation policies that it hopes Birdwatch can help to identify and enforce.
“It can answer questions like, is this really the trailer of this new TV show, yes or no? It can speak to the internet’s random curiosities that pop up. Like, is there a giant void in space? Or, is this bat actually the size of a human?” Coleman stated, adding: “That bat is not in fact the size of a human. The photo was just taken from a funny perspective and the bat is only about one foot tall, which may be large, but is smaller than human size. So I learned on Birdwatch.
The company claims that users are 15 to 35 percent less likely to like or retweet content with a visible Birdwatch note and that the feature has helped to reduce misinformation across the platform.