The social media platform X, owned by Elon Musk, has expanded its Community Notes contributor program to India as of Thursday. This initiative allows users in India to apply for roles within the open-source moderation tool, which focuses on reviewing and rating posts that contain misleading information or misinformation. Community Notes was initially launched in November 2022, but participation had been limited to select countries. With this expansion, the program now includes contributors from 69 nations.
This announcement was communicated through a tweet from the official Community Notes account. It stated, “Welcome new contributors in India. Our first contributors are joining today, and we’ll be expanding over time. As always, we’ll monitor quality to ensure that notes are found helpful by people from different points of view.” Elon Musk also shared his thoughts on the development in a separate post.
Once these criteria are satisfied, users can submit their applications here. The application process involves specifying the languages the user is proficient in and agreeing to X’s terms. However, it’s important to note that new contributors will not immediately be able to review or rate posts. Instead, they will begin by rating Community Notes based on their helpfulness. Over time, and depending on their frequency and accuracy in rating, contributors may be approached by the platform to write Community Notes for others to evaluate.
Before its rebranding in November 2022, Community Notes was originally known as Birdwatch. Introduced in 2020, Birdwatch served as a tool to combat misinformation and propaganda. Following Musk’s acquisition of the platform, it underwent a transformation into an open-source tool. X maintains that it does not control the feature, which relies solely on user reviews and ratings. Furthermore, all Community Notes data is published daily and is available for public download for transparency.
