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Elon Musk Introduces New Policy on X Platform to Counter Spread of Misinformation

On Sunday, Elon Musk announced a big change in monetization policy on the X platform (formerly Twitter). Now, creators of posts corrected by Community Notes will not be entitled to payment. According to Elon Musk, the intention behind the move is to ‘maximize the incentive for accuracy over sensationalism’.

Making a slight change to creator monetization:

Any posts that are corrected by @CommunityNotes become ineligible for revenue share.

The idea is to maximize the incentive for accuracy over sensationalism.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 29, 2023

Community Notes feature aims to create a better-informed world by enabling X users to collaboratively add context to potentially misleading posts. Launched in 2022, the system is based on a wide range of inputs from contributors for each note that is appended to a post within the app. In particular, contributors can leave notes on any post, and in case there are enough contributors from different points of view who rate the note as helpful, it will be publicly shown on a post. Creators of posts are getting paid based on post views.

Initially, Community Notes was introduced as a fact-checking program to tackle disinformation on X. However, it didn’t work with coverage of the Israel-Hamas conflict. Once the war broke out, the tool made the problem of disinformation spread worse, instead of handling fake news.

Social media platforms like X, Meta, and TikTok have overflowed with posts containing unverified data and false information. Within the first few days of the Israel-Hamas war, millions of posts, photos, and videos appeared on the platforms, and not all of them were reliable. Notably, of all platforms, Elon Musk’s X appeared to have had the worst outbreak of fake news related to the war. As a result, the European Commission formally sent X a request for information under the Digital Services Act (DSA). The latter fosters safer online environments and protects the fundamental rights of online users.

All the mentioned platforms also received a warning from Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market, who reminded them about how failing to comply with the region’s rules about illegal online posts under the Digital Services Act could impact their businesses.

In response to the warning, X removed hundreds of Hamas-affiliated accounts from its platform.

Elon Musk Considering New Policy: X Might Charge for Using the Platform

Apart from the Community Notes monetization update, Elon Musk is reportedly considering the introduction of a monthly fee for using the X platform. Currently, there is an option for subscribing to X Premium which offers exclusive benefits like verification, the ability to edit posts, and additional two-factor authentication for $8 per month.

According to Elon Musk, charging a small fee from all users for using the platform would help stop people from creating fake or automated accounts for disseminating misinformation, propaganda, and scams. The billionaire has been bearing this idea since 2022. Now, the idea looks real, Elon Musk has already revealed there would be two new subscription models.

Recently, Musk said:

“Two new tiers of X premium subscriptions launching soon. One is lower cost with all features, but no reduction in ads, and the other is more expensive, but has no ads.”

Earlier, X launched a $1 annual charge to new users in New Zealand and the Philippines in a move that Elon Musk says is aimed at combating bots.

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Elon Musk Introduces New Policy on X Platform to Counter Spread of Misinformation