Twitter owner Elon Musk was corrected by the site’s new “community notes” feature after claiming that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis broke a single-day fundraising record. Not long after the tweet was posted, it was slapped with a community note explaining that President Trump set the record in 2019.
“Lot of noise about @RonDeSantis announcing & discussing his Presidential bid on this platform,” Musk wrote in a tweet Thursday. “But you what isn’t noise? Setting an all-time record for fundraising! Worth considering for announcements in general.”
A Community Note that has received a rating of “helpful” was soon added to the post saying, “This tweet is factually incorrect.”
“Trump raised $25M in 2019. Removing large donors, it’s still $14M. Furthermore half of Gov. DeSantis’ donations came via donor event that started in advance of the Space. Pres. Joe Biden raised $6.3M topping DeSantis’ online donations,” reads the Community Note.
Lot of noise about @RonDeSantis announcing & discussing his Presidential bid on this platform.
But you what isn’t noise? Setting an all-time record for fundraising!
Worth considering for announcements in general. https://t.co/8cGlxiHhHS
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 26, 2023
The Community Notes feature was added not long after Musk acquired the social media company, which he aims to transform into an “everything app,” or “X,” that will include streaming, payment processing and online shopping.
The feature allows fact-checks on tweets that can then be rated as helpful or unhelpful by Twitter users. It has been praised as an upgrade over Twitter’s old “fact-checking” strategy, which was done arbitrarily and overwhelmingly targeted right-wing users and sources, according to disclosures from the Twitter Files.
“On this platform, unlike the one-way street of broadcast, people are able to interact, critique and refute whatever is said,” Musk said shortly after Tucker Carlson announced that he would be bringing his show to Twitter. “And, of course, anything misleading will get @CommunityNotes.”
Musk discussed the feature in detail in an interview with Carlson this past April. “We got this Community Notes feature which is great,” Musk said. “It is great,” Carlson agreed.
“It’s great. We put a lot of effort into ensuring that Community Notes does not get gamed or have biases. It simply cares about what is the most accurate thing. Sometimes truth can be a little bit elusive, but you can still aspire to get closer to it,” Musk continued. “So, you know, and I think the effect of Community Notes is more powerful than people may realize because once people know they can get ‘noted,’ you know, ‘Community Noted’ on Twitter, then they’ll think more carefully about what they say. It’s basically an encouragement to be more truthful and less deceptive.”
Elon on free speech being priceless & the bedrock of a functioning society, NY Times diarrhea Twitter posting, and Community Notes' power to deception.#1A #ElonMusk #Truth #Tucker #TuckerCarlson pic.twitter.com/ZyuBQDLIaT
— JPF 🇺🇸 (@real__JPF) April 18, 2023