'Notes on Media': Twitter gives public a superpower to fact-check fake news

Twitter has tested a new tool called "Notes on Media" to help users identify misleading images and videos in an effort to stop the spread of false information. 

To offer helpful details on certain media items, the company is using fact-checks from the public via Community Notes. 

"From AI-generated images to manipulated videos, it's common to come across misleading media. Today we're piloting a feature that puts a superpower into contributors' hands: Notes on Media," said a tweet from Twitter's Community Notes account about the pilot feature.

The announcement suggests the new tool will allow notes attached to an image to automatically appear on recent and future matching images.

Moreover, a new option will enable users to mark notes as "About the image" when media is potentially misleading.

Twitter also clarified that notes marked "about the image" will be separated and interpreted as referring to media instead of the specific tweet.

This feature presently only supports tweets with a single image, but Twitter is actively trying to expand it to allow tweets with multiple images or videos.

However, the social media platform understands that it will take time to improve the image-matching procedure.

The platform will continue to improve its functionality as the pilot period goes on and Twitter collects feedback from users and fact-checkers, helping to create a safer and more trustworthy information ecosystem on Twitter.

"We’ll monitor how notes on media are used and will be looking for your feedback. We’re excited to see contributors’ impact magnified with this launch," the company mentioned.