In an effort to expand its crowdsourced fact-checking program, Twitter has expanded the service to include photos, after a fake photo of the Pentagon explosion went viral on the site.
Twitter’s Community Notes, designed for users to add context to potentially misleading content on Twitter, will now let users contribute to a specific photo by adding information below it. Information will then appear below the tweet to inform other users about the tweet.
Raters and readers will see notes that authors marked as “about the image” slightly differently, so it’s clear to everyone that they should be interpreted as about the media, not the specific Tweet. Ratings can help identify cases where a note may not apply to a specific Tweet. pic.twitter.com/EDkSfRfxHv
— Community Notes (@CommunityNotes) May 30, 2023
In the company’s announcement, Twitter emphasized the popularity of AI-generated fake photos on the platform. Such images have created fear, amusement and confusion. Last week, a fake photo of the Pentagon explosion went viral on Twitter and was shared by several verified accounts pretending to be affiliated with JEE News.
Using the new feature, Twitter Community Notes users will be able to add context to a tweet or photo. The tool currently only works for single images, though Twitter says it’s working on expanding it to videos and posts with multiple images.
