Community Notes help reduce the virality of false information on X, UW-led study finds

A University of Washington-led study of X found that posts with Community Notes attached were less prone to going viral and got less engagement. After getting a Community Note, on average, reposts dropped 46% and likes dropped 44%. Photo: iStock 
 In 2022, after Elon Musk bought what’s now X, the company laid off 80% of its content moderation team and made Community Notes the platform’s main form of fact-checking. Previously a pilot program at Twitter, Community Notes lets users propose attaching a comment to a specific post — usually to add context or correct an inaccurate fact. If other users with diverse views vote that the comment is useful, as measured by X’s algorithm, then the note is appended to the post. Other social media platforms, including Meta and YouTube, have since followed .  

 A University of Washington-led study of X found that posts with Community Notes attached were less prone to going viral and got less engagement. After getting a Community Note, on average, reposts dropped 46% and likes dropped 44%.   

 “We found that Community Notes are effective when attached, especially in reducing engagement that signals support for the content, such as reposts and likes,” said senior author Martin Saveski , a UW assistant professor in the Information School. “But the spread of misinformation on social media is complex and multifaceted, and it requires multiple approaches working together to effectively curb it. Systems like Community Notes are an important addition to the platforms’ toolbox.” 

 The team published its findings Sept. 18 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 

 Between March and June of 2023, researchers tracked 40,000 posts for which a note was suggested. Of those, 6,757 notes were deemed helpful and were attached. The team tracked posts for 48 hours after getting a note attached and compared posts with notes to those without on two key aspects: engagement, such as likes and reposts, and diffusion.  

 Diffusion accounts for how a post spreads through the social network — essentially its virality. For example, do only people who follow an account engage with a post? 

 “We know from other studies that false information typically spreads faster, broader and more virally, than true information does,” said lead author Isaac Slaughter , a UW doctoral student in the Information School. “We found that Community Notes significantly change the way information spreads through a network. People who are distant in the social network from the person that posted the misinformation are much less likely to interact with the post. But people close to the source — followers, for instance — tend to be less affected by the note.” 

 On average, the team found that after notes were added, engagement dropped 46% for reposts, 44% for likes, 22% for replies and 14% for views. Over posts’ whole lifespans, including engagement before notes were attached, the drops were 12% for reposts, 13% for lik

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