How X built the best fact-checking system on the internet | Keith Coleman (VP of Product) and Jay Baxter (ML Lead)
How X built the best fact-checking system on the internet | Keith Coleman (VP of Product) and Jay Baxter (ML Lead)Inside Elon’s favorite product feature: The story of X’s Community NotesListen now on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. Brought to you by: • WorkOS—Modern identity platform for B2B SaaS, free up to 1 million MAUs — Keith Coleman (VP of product) and Jay Baxter (founding ML engineer), the minds behind Community Notes, reveal how a small, scrappy team inside Twitter/X built the most trusted crowdsourced information system on the internet—one that’s changing the way we understand truth online. What you’ll learn:
Find the transcript at: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-x-built-the-best-fact-checking-system-on-the-internet Some takeaways:
Where to find Keith Coleman: • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keith-coleman-19b12b46/ Where to find Jay Baxter: • X: https://x.com/_jaybaxter_ • LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaybaxter/ • Website: http://jaybaxter.net/ In this episode, we cover: (00:00) Introduction to Community Notes (06:56) How the “bridging-based” algorithm works (13:33) The impact and scale of Community Notes (17:24) Understanding the note publishing threshold (21:32) Challenges and philosophies (26:26) The effect of notes on re-sharing content (29:41) Origin story (35:46) Embracing small teams for big impact (40:23) The thermal project approach (47:47) Algorithm development and internal competitions (50:34) An inside look at how the team operates (58:56) Working with Elon (01:05:30) Launching Birdwatch (01:10:48) The core principles behind Community Notes (01:26:15) Anonymity and pseudonymity in contributions (01:32:17) Sustaining the project through leadership changes (01:37:57) Future directions for Community Notes (01:42:12) Final thoughts and optimism for the future Referenced: • Community Notes on X: https://x.com/CommunityNotes • Sign up to be a Community Notes contributor: https://communitynotes.x.com/guide/en/contributing/signing-up • The Making of Community Notes: https://asteriskmag.com/issues/08/the-making-of-community-notes • “Readers added a Community Note to this Tweet”: https://x.com/HelpfulNotes/status/1718103364792205704 • Note-ranking algorithm: https://communitynotes.x.com/guide/en/under-the-hood/ranking-notes#matrix-factorization • Study: Community Notes on X could be key to curbing misinformation: https://giesbusiness.illinois.edu/news/2024/11/18/study--community-notes-on-x-could-be-key-to-curbing-misinformation • Study Finds X’s (Formerly Twitter’s) Community Notes Provide Accurate, Credible Answers to Vaccine Misinformation: https://qi.ucsd.edu/study-finds-xs-formerly-twitters-community-notes-provide-accurate-credible-answers-to-vaccine-misinformation/ • Did the Roll-Out of Community Notes Reduce Engagement with Misinformation on X/Twitter?: https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3686967 • Kayvon Beykpour on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kayvz/ • Jack Dorsey on X: https://x.com/jack • “Birdwatch gives me the creeps” tweet: https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1589454464611540992 • Blake Scholl on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakescholl/ • Creating Truthtelling Incentives with the Bayesian Truth Serum: https://www.eecs.harvard.edu/cs286r/courses/fall12/papers/DW08.pdf • Asana: https://asana.com/ • Spaces: https://blog.x.com/en_us/topics/product/2021/spaces-is-here • Amazon MTurk: https://www.mturk.com/ • Community notes on GitHub: https://github.com/twitter/communitynotes • What do I think about Community Notes?: https://vitalik.eth.limo/general/2023/08/16/communitynotes.html • X’s community-led approach: tackling inaccurate and misleading information: https://blog.x.com/en_us/topics/company/2023/xs-community-led-approach-tackling-inaccurate-and-misleading-information • Linda Yaccarino on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindayaccarino/ • Messi-Ronaldo rivalry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messi%E2%80%93Ronaldo_rivalry • Supernotes paper: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2411.06116v1 Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com. Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Invite your friends and earn rewardsIf you enjoy Lenny's Newsletter, share it with your friends and earn rewards when they subscribe. |
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