Read on Twitter
Twitter is about to become a little more like reddit and Wikipedia, turning to users to add context to misleading tweets in a new pilot project known as Birdwatch: https://blog.twitter.com/en_us/topics/product/2021/introducing-birdwatch-a-community-based-approach-to-misinformation.html
Here's more about how Twitter's note-ranking system will work: https://twitter.github.io/birdwatch/about/ranking-notes/
Here's what participants will see when they register for the program: https://twitter.com/i/flow/join-birdwatch
The parallels to reddit and Wikipedia seem obvious, but there are critical differences that could complicate things.
reddit is made up of communities that are led by moderators who have the power to establish rules and directly remove content. That isn't the case on Twitter.
reddit is made up of communities that are led by moderators who have the power to establish rules and directly remove content. That isn't the case on Twitter.
Wikipedia, meanwhile, has pretty strict version control. Sometimes you get rogue edits, but they're quickly reversed.
Version control isn't a thing with tweets.
Version control isn't a thing with tweets.
Back to reddit, it's common to see popular ideas get voted to the top, regardless of merit. Claims that cut against the CW get "downvoted to oblivion."
Reddit hasn't really come up with a good way to deal with the externalities of this, other than banning subs that spread lies.
Reddit hasn't really come up with a good way to deal with the externalities of this, other than banning subs that spread lies.
