Posting misleading news for engagement: X hasn’t announced any direct plans to address the issue, but it did reveal plans to improve Community Notes by unveiling Lightning Notes. This would be a tool for fighting misinformation, reducing the time it takes before these notes are visible.
Typically, Community Notes are written by contributors who anonymously rate posts that may be misleading or false. Other contributors can then rate these notes as helpful or not. If deemed helpful, the Community Note is made public, helping other users of the app understand the context of the post and avoid misunderstandings.
But the problem with this is that the system is slow and it often takes a significant amount of time for a note to be published, meaning that by that point many people are already misinformed. Even Bloomberg has reported that it works inefficiently, especially on highly controversial topics.
To solve this problem on X, Elon introduced “Lightning Notes,” a system that works just as fast as Community Notes. This new system aims to ensure that Community Notes appear within minutes, and sometimes even 20 minutes, of being posted. This allows people to add context to their posts before they go viral, ensuring that most of their potential readers see the post.
While the exact mechanism is still unknown, this showcases the efforts of X’s 800,000+ contributors around the world.
Other Social Media Platforms
Given the problem of misinformation spreading on social media, it is time for X to take steps to improve their platform. This issue also affects several other platforms.
For example, Instagram’s Threads app faced a similar challenge. The company announced plans to curb the issue but did not reveal how. In contrast, platforms like Bluesky avoid the issue by not encouraging inflammatory posts or content created solely for engagement.
X’s new approach could help make the app less toxic and attract more users to the platform in the long run when X needs it most. With the platform reportedly worth a fraction of what it was when Elon bought it, such an initiative could go a long way to restoring the platform to its former glory.
