X's "Community Notes" feature has raised questions among some users about potential manipulation by specific groups. Elon Musk stated today on the X platform that the system is completely decentralized and open source, with both data and code being uncontrollable by the X team or himself. He urged that the best way to ensure accuracy is for users to personally contribute notes. (Background: Vitalik Buterin praised "prediction markets" and "community annotations" for helping to seek the truth, prompting a rare response from Musk.) (Additional context: Vitalik praised Twitter's X platform for being able to "break the echo chamber": Community Notes have high encrypted value) The "Community Notes" feature on the X (formerly Twitter) platform, originally called "Birdwatch," was launched as a pilot project in January 2021. This feature aims to add contextual annotations to tweets through user collaboration, helping to verify information and combat misinformation. At the end of 2023, the X platform opened registration for Taiwanese users to participate in this feature, further expanding its global reach. Community Notes is a feature that Musk is very concerned about, as it is closely related to his emphasis on "transparency" and "truth," aligning with his vision of making X a platform that promotes free speech. Musk: Community Notes are completely decentralized and open source. Today, Musk emphasized on the X platform that to ensure the content of Community Notes is as accurate as possible, the best way is to participate personally and become a contributor. He pointed out: This system is completely decentralized and open source, both code and data. Any manipulation would be as obvious as a neon sore thumb! Musk further stated that neither the X platform nor its team, including himself, has any editorial control over the system. The operation of this system requires users who once held different opinions to reach a consensus for a particular annotation to be displayed. The best way to ensure that @CommunityNotes are as accurate as possible is to become a contributor. The system is completely decentralized and open source, both code and data. Any manipulation would show up like a neon sore thumb! No one at 𝕏, including me, has any editorial control… — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 30, 2024 This statement seems to respond to external concerns about the fairness and accuracy of Community Notes. However, some users continue to raise doubts, believing that Community Notes may be organized and manipulated by specific groups. For example, Wall Street Apes, which has nearly 700,000 followers, claimed that 3,000 "liberal trolls" were privately coordinating to share and like each other's annotations to enhance their visibility. One user also mentioned: I noticed that under my post, I saw these people urging their peers to like the annotations targeting me. Another user raised the question: Some accounts seem responsible for writing hundreds or even thousands of notes and ratings. This inevitably raises suspicion—are they being funded behind the scenes for these activities? This situation is particularly evident in medical topics. Is Big Pharma funding this behind the scenes? Or are certain political organizations involved? Are there organizations or companies specifically providing "hired influence" or "note-writing services"? These inquiries reflect concerns among some users about the potential misuse of the Community Notes mechanism, especially under a decentralized framework, where ensuring the authenticity and diversity of notes remains a challenge the system faces. Vitalik praises the Community Notes feature. Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has always highly recognized the Community Notes feature, believing it has significant implications for resisting polarization and embodying the decentralized spirit of crypto. He praised: Community Notes, although not a crypto project, might be the closest application example to "crypto values" in the mainstream world. In July this year, Vitalik also praised "prediction markets" and "community notes" for helping to seek the truth. He stated: Prediction markets and community notes are gradually becoming two important social cognition technologies of the 2020s. Both pursue truth and democracy, based on public participation rather than pre-selected elites. I hope to see more of such things. Vitalik further explained: I believe prediction markets and community notes are very complementary. The main criticism faced by Community Notes is that its response speed is too slow. Prediction markets focus on incentivizing people to predict signals that may emerge in the future and disclose them as quickly as possible. Related reports: Vitalik and Audrey Tang's ABS closing speech: The world needs blockchain as a sandbox for democratic governance. OpenAI's political game failed; will Sam Altman struggle against Musk and Trump's "AI alliance"? Musk's xAI opens "Grok-2" for all X users for free; three major highlights and new features all at once. "The article titled 'V's Praise of the X Platform Community Notes Faces Manipulation Concerns! Musk: The System is Completely Decentralized and Open Source, Including I Cannot Control' was first published in BlockTempo (the most influential blockchain news media).