Twitter to Begin Surfacing Notes From Its Birdwatch Pilot on Tweets for Some US Users

Twitter will begin surfacing notes from its Birdwatch pilot of a community-driven approach to tackling misinformation directly on some tweets for a small, randomly selected group of users in the U.S. Vice president of product Keith Coleman said in a blog post Thursday that those notes will need to be rated as helpful by enough Birdwatch contributors from different perspectives before appearing on tweets, adding that users in the test group will be able to rate those notes and provide input that will help improve Birdwatch’s efforts to include context from people with different viewpoints. He added that Twitter defines difference in perspectives in this case by how people have rated notes in the past, and not by demographics, with more details here. Coleman said surveys Twitter conducted with randomly sampled people in the U.S. found that the majority of respondents believe Birdwatch notes to be helpful, across the political spectrum, and they were 20% to 40% less likely to agree with the substance of potentially misleading tweets after reading notes, compared with those who saw the tweets without notes. He explained, “These are encouraging signs that Birdwatch can be helpful and informative to people on Twitter. That’s why we’re now expanding the visibility of the pilot so we can make additional improvements with feedback from more people on Twitter.” The social network officially kicked off the Birdwatch pilot last January, with participants identifying what they believed to be misleading information in tweets and writing notes that provide informative context. Those notes were only available on the Birdwatch site, with Coleman saying at the time that the eventual goal was to make them visible on tweets for users worldwide “when there is consensus from a broad and diverse set of contributors.” Since its debut, Twitter has made changes to Birdwatch including: strengthening the way it identifies notes that a diverse set of contributors find helpful; rolling out auto-generated aliases to protect contributors and make them feel more comfortable; notifying participants when their notes are rated helpful or notes they rated are elevated; encouraging participants to include sources and clear explanations via in-application prompts; and adding a personalized “Needs Your Help” tab to make notes that need a broader range of feedback easier to discover. Last August, Twitter reached a partnership with The Associated Press and Reuters to help its teams assess the quality of information elevated by Birdwatch participants. And the company formed an advisory board of scholars and researchers who study harassment, misinformation, online manipulation and polarization from institutions including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Michigan School of Information and the University of Washington. Coleman wrote, “We’re thankful for all 10,000 pilot contributors who have played a key role in making Birdwatch what it is today. Along with the time and effort they invest in writing and rating notes, Birdwatch contributors have consistently provided priceless feedback on their Birdwatch experience and shared thoughtful and honest feedback about what's working and what could be better. We’ll continue to build in the open as we learn, iterate, and expand the pilot. Follow @Birdwatch for the latest updates and to provide feedback on how we’re doing.”

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Twitter to Begin Surfacing Notes From Its Birdwatch Pilot on Tweets for Some US Users

The community-driven approach to tackling misinformation kicked off last January

David Cohen

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David Cohen