72 Comments
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Christopher Arnell's avatar

Your investigative piece on Community Notes is a timely and essential reminder of how noble-sounding initiatives often become corrupted when "left" unchecked. History repeatedly shows us that when the arbiters of truth are themselves unaccountable, the "truth" becomes whatever serves their interests.

Your meticulous documentation of the so-called "Enterprising Desert Raven" and the questionable oversight by @jaybaxter exposes a critical flaw: when gatekeepers are allowed to hide behind anonymity and manipulate outcomes, the democratic intent of these platforms is undermined.

In my examination of Community Notes, I argued that when fact-checking becomes subject to ideological manipulation, it ceases to be a safeguard of truth and transforms into just another weapon of censorship. Your investigation provides concrete proof of precisely this danger.

This sort of diligent exposure is vital. It is not enough to trust in systems; we must actively scrutinize and hold those entrusted with their oversight accountable. I commend your commitment to revealing uncomfortable truths and sincerely hope it sparks meaningful reforms to restore integrity to public discourse.

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Vincent Vaiano's avatar

I've had posts deleted & bogus community notes attached to a couple of my posts. I attached a link to the actual study in the DRC showing that Remdesivir tested as more toxic than Ebola itself, and that it was killing people. That post was deleted within two hours and I have almost no following on X. Where does that leave us? These Astroturf campaigns against honest people just interested in sharing truth..... where does that leave us? TY so much for this article and understanding how to keep the receipts. What you do is a gift to humanity. God Bless

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Teresa's avatar

I do community notes and from what I have heard through the grapevine is that Replendent Cedar Osprey is one of the Krassenstein brothers. So it would be no surprise if there was more scumbaggery going on. Honestly, I spend more time rating proposed notes as not helpful then I actually do on writing a note!

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Jelleke Wierenga's avatar

Your “then” should be “than”. I see this mistake in so many comments all over the internet. Same with “your” which should be “you’re” (contraction of “you are”). And it seems few people know the difference between “their” and “there”. English is not my mother tongue …

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Stephen's avatar

And sometimes it's the phone choosing to make that typo.

Lighten up.

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Jelleke Wierenga's avatar

That “typo” happens too frequently to be “sometimes” the phone. No, it’s plain and simple ignorance, indicative of a mind uneducated by reading strange old papery objects called books. Also, most commenters couldn’t be bothered to read through their comment even once to fix typos and check spelling before posting. Sloppy writing, sloppy mind.

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Andy's avatar

Pedant.

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Formerly_Known_As_Someone's avatar

In English, the period goes inside the quotation marks. You wrote it incorrectly twice in the your comment. So nyah.

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Jelleke Wierenga's avatar

Your source?

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Formerly_Known_As_Someone's avatar

I didn’t need a source because it’s extremely common knowledge. However, since you seem unable to do your own Internet search, here is one from the MLA. There are many other sources as well.

https://style.mla.org/the-placement-of-a-comma-or-period-after-a-quotation/

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Homer Terence's avatar

There's a simple solution--no pen names for Community Notes. People have to use their own verifiable names and email addresses in order to take responsibility for their corrections. Otherwise an invitation to abuse.

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Diane's avatar

Excellent work to expose this creep!

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Jef Spalding's avatar

Thks VF for this informative and incredibly well researched post. I know this happens on many other platforms as well, but maybe not quite so sophisticated and insidious. I've seen this happen on FB often, as upon revisiting the same post, my truthful response has vanished, even though in some instances, Ive received a few likes, and then quickly removed. It appears that even censorship, like science, works in mysterious ways

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Edward GRAY's avatar

Wow, good work!

Of course community notes is vulnerable to manipulation.

Believe nothing unless backed by disparate sources, and even then be skeptical.

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Steven Bradford's avatar

Wow, great work revealing this insider. Hopefully Musk takes action.

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J. Baker's avatar

Can you make sure this info gets to Elon Musk?

He needs to read this.

Excellent work! Thank you!

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Rebecca Lee (maybeitsmercury)'s avatar

I postulate that there is a legion of "neurodiverse" kids working for pharma. This seems awfully ironic, but there it is!

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George Demic's avatar

So what happens to him now? Does he spend time in prison? Does he get beaten up when he goes out in public? Do his relationships with others get destroyed? Does he lose the ability to interview for jobs without being exposed? Does his bank account get stonewalled?

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Susan's avatar

thank you so much for this meticulous and well done article!! I certainly have felt something as a miss with the community notes on x. please fix this @elonmusk

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Elaine Russky's avatar

Why not let people be their own fact checkers? X is a free speech platform, so let these "fact checkers" submit comments disagreeing with posts they don't like, the same as anyone else. Why should their critiques be emphasized, particularly when they are subject to the same frailties as anyone else's opposing comments?

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Carolyn's avatar

Agree totally.

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FoxyHeterodoxy (Debra C)'s avatar

Investigative journalism at its finest! Kudos! 👏🏾👊🏾🙌🏾💯

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Bridget Faria's avatar

Lets see what Musk does about this BS!!

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Doug Pedersen's avatar

Vigilant Fox needs to do community notes.

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Carolyn's avatar

No one should. Defeats the supposed purpose of a free speech platform. It is nothing more than censorship

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