Twitter has introduced a new feature called Community Notes in an effort to address the spread of morphed images and AI-generated content on its platform. The company aims to tackle scenarios where photos are posted with misleading or manipulated information. The move comes in response to recent incidents such as the viral image of the “Balenciaga Pope” and an AI-generated image depicting an attack on the Pentagon, both of which garnered significant attention and retweets.
Under the new feature, notes written for an image will appear on “recent & future” posts containing that image. Currently in the testing phase, the feature will initially apply to tweets with a single image. Twitter has specified that only Community Notes contributors with an impact score of 10, a measure of their note’s helpfulness, will have the option to submit notes specifically for an image rather than a tweet. This ensures consistency in cases where users tweet the same image with different captions.
Tweets containing images with notes will be labeled with a message indicating that the note pertains to the image and may appear on other tweets featuring the same image. Twitter has plans to expand this feature to support videos and tweets with multiple media, acknowledging that the early version’s matching algorithm may overlook some tweets with image notes.
The urgency to address image-related misinformation has become more evident, as instances like the Pentagon attack hoax spread rapidly on the platform through a combination of paid verified accounts and AI-generated images. Even after the original image and tweet were deleted, the photo continued to circulate on Twitter. Additionally, the problem extends to AI-generated fake ads that deceive users into believing the false news of notable personalities’ deaths, such as former footballer Ian Wright and chef Gordon Ramsey.
Since Elon Musk’s involvement in Twitter, the platform has increasingly relied on crowdsourced moderation through Community Notes, leading to a reduction in staff working on trust and safety functions as a cost-cutting measure. Last year, Twitter introduced Community Notes globally and began accepting contributions from users worldwide earlier this year. In February, the platform also implemented a feature to provide users with contextual information about retweeted or replied-to posts through notifications.
