NewsGuard Finds X Failed to Flag 93% of Election Lies
NewsGuard reports that X's Community Notes failed to flag 93.1% of false claims regarding the U.S. midterm elections, including posts by Elon Musk.
A study by the U.S. watchdog NewsGuard found that X's crowdsourced fact-checking system, Community Notes, failed to flag 93.1% of false claims related to the U.S. midterm elections. The research identified dozens of posts spreading falsehoods about voter ID laws in California and New York, as well as bogus allegations of election fraud.
NewsGuard reported that Elon Musk advanced at least four false claims about the elections, none of which were tagged by the system. While Musk has described the Community Notes model as "awesome," researchers argue the system is susceptible to manipulation by partisan beliefs and works best only for topics with broad consensus.
This shift toward community-driven moderation extends to Meta, which ended its third-party fact-checking program in the United States. Meta is currently testing a similar community-based model in 16 Latin American countries. This transition occurs despite warnings from the Meta Oversight Board that such systems are not adequate replacements for professional fact-checking.
