New backpedaling from Elon Musk. While he is regularly accused of encouraging disinformation on his social network more viral.
“Slight change to the monetization program: any post corrected by community ratings becomes ineligible for the revenue sharing program. The idea is to maximize the incentive for accuracy rather than sensationalism,” Elon Musk tweeted . And to specify that “any attempt to use community notes as a weapon to demonetize people will immediately be highlighted”. This, with the aim of anticipating possible deviations from this new operation.
“Community notes” targeted by demonetization
Established at the end of April, monetization allows users of the social network to offer paid subscriptions, with reserved content. But faced with accusations of disinformation, this summer X opened the possibility for Internet users to comment or clarify questionable messages. A system called “community notes” which followed the implementation of other functionalities, including the blue check mark granting the user the status of “certified” member, made accessible to any person fulfilling a monthly subscription of 9.60 euros.
However, according to the international platform against disinformation NewsGuard, “certified” users on X produce 74% of the most viral false or baseless claims related to the war. And to add: “Verified accounts on
For NewsGuard, paid certification has notably proven to be “a boon for malicious actors sharing misinformation”, who “benefit from the credibility associated with the blue check mark” which was formerly attributed to verified users. This is completely free.
Moderation capacities halved
In addition, due to a lack of a sufficient number of moderators, X cannot manage the influx of violent videos and images, which have flooded the platform since the Hamas terrorist attack on October 7. And for good reason, last November, Musk simultaneously cut the contracts of several thousand of his service providers, thus halving his moderation capabilities. To mark the one-year anniversary of the billionaire’s takeover of Twitter, social media specialists notably called for a strike by X.
“Twitter before Musk was not extraordinary either, but at least there was a dynamic, a desire to try to install real moderation. Since Musk arrived, every Twitter user has noticed that, we can clearly see that the toxicity of exchanges, polarization, disinformation, harassment are really part of everyday life”, argued Tristan Mendès France, one of the three actors at the origin of #NoTwitterDay, invited to the microphone of France Inter on Friday October 27.