As of October 17, 2023, X (formerly Twitter) has been testing the waters with two big changes: a new $1 per year subscription model and a stricter policy for its crowd-sourced fact-checking tool. While the changes seem to aim for quality control and revenue generation, they also raise some crucial questions about accessibility and credibility.
X seems like it wants the platform users to fact-check unreliable tweets
The subscription model, called “Not a Bot,” has been introduced for new users in New Zealand and the Philippines. The service, costing about a dollar a year, can appear as a negligible amount to some, but it might also act as a barrier for free speech. Charging even a nominal fee for a platform traditionally open to everyone risks alienating those who can’t or won’t pay.
Similarly, X has been scrambling to put a lid on the spread of misinformation by tweaking its crowd-sourced fact-checking tool. Volunteer contributors now have to back their claims with sources. However, with no set guidelines for what counts as a credible source, this change could be a double-edged sword. Given the on-going Israel–Hamas conflict and the circulation of false information, the importance of unbiased fact-checking has never been higher. But what happens when the fact-checkers themselves become conduits for misinformation?
To make matters even murkier, the company has cut staff responsible for curating reliable information and eliminated certain tools designed to report misinformation. It appears X may be shifting the responsibility of fact-checking onto its users, without giving them the tools to do so effectively.
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(Via)
