I have a million thoughts about this and most of them aren't good... https://twitter.com/TwitterSupport/status/1353766523664531459

There's part of me that thinks this community-based focus is really cool but it also feels SUPER exploitative. Using volunteer labor to undo the disinfo mess you let fester does not sit well with me.

That's assuming it all goes as planned. How is this going to deal with the backfire effect? How long before "Birdwatch Alerts" become a badge of honor? Disinfo is often closely tied to partisan (and thus personal) identity. How will this system avoid that?

How will Birdwatchers be regulated? What would disqualify a Birdwatcher? Will their status be public? If so, will Twitter protect them from doxxing or harassment?

I suspect if Twitter was being honest with itself, it'd say that Birdwatch can't stop disinfo from being posted, just limiting its spread beyond the hardcore believers in whatever lie is being propagated. It's protecting the "vaccine-hesitant" than the "anti-vax," as it were.

"when there is consensus from a broad and diverse set of contributors."

=

"Nothing meaningful will ever get corrected because partisans will not correct disinfo that favors their side, and at best we'll get a weird People Are Saying both-sides-y Birdwatch Alert"

I can't find where I first heard the quote: "Social media is not where people go to exchange information. It's where they establish identity."

But I think Twitter, and other platforms, need to take that to heart before any meaningful anti-disinfo effort can get off the ground.

What's the difference? If you're exchanging information, you welcome correction. You've learned a new thing! If you're establishing identity, you dismiss correction -- it's an attack on your whole self.

Birdwatch feels like Twitter trying to insist people are here to exchange information and not establish identity, when at best people are doing both and most of the time it's just the latter.

. @GraceSpelman also raises the very important point about the mental health of content moderators, a thing Facebook famously does not take care of well for the people it _pays_ to do that https://twitter.com/GraceSpelman/status/1353784517685891072