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16h ago

TikTok Debuts Footnotes Crowd-Sourced Fact Checker in U.S.

The pilot enlists 80,000 vetted contributors to annotate video context using a consensus-driven algorithm.

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Tech platforms increasingly view the community-driven moderation model as an alternative to professional fact-checking, which many conservative advocates have long accused of a liberal bias.
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Overview

  • The Footnotes pilot allows vetted users with at least six months on the platform to annotate and rate short videos, and it surfaces community-rated notes for all U.S. viewers.
  • Nearly 80,000 qualifying contributors are participating in the initial U.S. rollout to crowd-source clarifications and corrections.
  • Footnotes enhances TikTok’s existing measures, including content labeling and third-party fact-checker partnerships such as with AFP.
  • A bridge-based ranking system prioritizes annotations that earn support from contributors across different viewpoints.
  • Studies of similar models report that over 90 percent of community notes go unpublished, prompting experts to question the scalability of crowd-sourced fact-checking.