The single most active Community Notes user on X is a cybersecurity startup, cleaning the platform’s mess for free, a misinformation expert has found.
Exchanging fact-checking for Community Notes submitted by rank-and-file users has become the new norm for how tech companies seek to tackle the challenge of questionable content on their platforms.
Most experts have severe doubts whether the system works because the flow of fake news around the web, especially on X and Meta platforms, is as strong as ever.
Still, at least on X, Community Notes, launched in 2021, are by now everyday features, so if someone is willing to try to improve this amateur form of fact-checking – great.
Alas, not much is known about the program. Contributors are simply given bird-related pseudonyms – such as ‘hilarious ridge hoopoe,’ ‘distinguished twig goldfinch,’ or ‘creative beech finchand’ – and can’t personalize their profiles: no information about their motivations and background is provided.
Now, however, Alexios Mantzarlis, a misinformation and digital deception expert and director of the Security, Trust, and Safety Initiative at Cornell Tech, says he’s found that the single most active Community Notes user is tied to a cybersecurity startup called Web3 Antivirus.
As Mantzarlis writes on Indicator, the company uses an automated process to publish Community Notes on posts that are pushing crypto scams. There are thousands of such messages on X.
Just recently, we reported how scammers on X are running ads luring users with a fake “iToken” product. That particular scam abuses the Apple brand, spoofs a landing page URL to show CNN, but ultimately leads users to a malicious website with a faux Tim Cook peddling a non-existent token.
Cybercriminals are also taking over large X accounts to advertise scam crypto coins, hoping that high-profile and trusted accounts will convince people to buy worthless products.
Web3 Antivirus has so far managed to flag more than 52,000 posts involving crypto scams.
Alex Dulub, the founder of Web3 Antivirus, told Mantzarlis that the goal is to help users and to fill a gap left by “the limited responsiveness of X’s support and technical teams” to such threats.
It’s actually astounding that Web3 Antivirus has so far managed to flag more than 52,000 posts involving crypto scams. Machine learning and automation help, Dulub explained, because automated tools can scan tweets faster on a larger scale.
Moreover, it’s a response to struggles at X, which swiftly reduced the headcount of their manual moderation teams once Elon Musk bought the platform. But it also means X’s content is being cleaned up for free.
“When I started researching this story, I thought it was going to be about a grifting private actor abusing Community Notes. Instead, the grifter appears to be X, benefiting from the free labor of a specialized contributor,” said Mantzarlis.
“This raises questions about the alleged democratizing purpose of the program and the value X extracts for free from contributors.”
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