Elon Musk’s X extends crowdsourced fact-checking programme to India

Elon Musk-owned social media platform ​​X has expanded its crowd-sourced fact-checking programme, Community Notes, to accept contributions from India.

The programme, formerly known as Birdwatch, was launched to address disinformation on the social media platform.

“Welcome new contributors in India 👋,” @CommunityNotes account post on X.

“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,” the post added.

This development comes mere weeks ahead of India’s national elections. 

With the addition of India, Community Notes now has contributors in 69 countries around the world.

Contributors have the option to leave notes on any post. If a note receives sufficient positive ratings from contributors with diverse viewpoints, it will be publicly displayed on the post. X users can sign up to become contributors.

X also introduced Community Notes for images and videos last year.

Fact-checking is crucial on social media platforms and other popular apps to ensure the dissemination of accurate information.

In February, the Misinformation Combat Alliance and Meta announced plans to introduce a dedicated fact-checking helpline on WhatsApp, a widely used messaging app. The initiative targets the challenge posed by deceptive deepfake videos that could potentially mislead users on critical public matters.