I don’t think the fact-checkers were a better product feature in the current environment. I do think that the reasons they aren’t a good product feature are linked to a concerted effort to convince people to distrust fact-checkers. I recognize that many people would say the distrust arose from the way fact-checkers behaved; I don’t think that’s true.
From a product perspective, once it’s accepted that Community Notes go through an algorithmic filtering process (which they must), you have to accept that you’ve lost most potential for third party viewpoints. There is nothing stopping ideological companies from putting their thumbs on the scale.
Back to product perspective: that means there’s no barrier preventing Notes from losing trust in the same way fact checkers have. The playing field is not static.
I think the speed of the rollout will tell us a lot about how long this has been in the works. It’s not a one week feature, although I will remember that Meta produced Threads very quickly.
From a product perspective, once it’s accepted that Community Notes go through an algorithmic filtering process (which they must), you have to accept that you’ve lost most potential for third party viewpoints. There is nothing stopping ideological companies from putting their thumbs on the scale.
Back to product perspective: that means there’s no barrier preventing Notes from losing trust in the same way fact checkers have. The playing field is not static.
I think the speed of the rollout will tell us a lot about how long this has been in the works. It’s not a one week feature, although I will remember that Meta produced Threads very quickly.