In today's #vatniksoup, I'll talk briefly about the Community Notes system and why it doesn't work. I've previously stated that the Community Notes mechanism is a "mob rule" and can be played easily by big accounts and troll farms.
1/15
Community Notes is a community-driven content moderation program, intended to provide informative context based on a crowd-sourced voting system. As of Nov 2023, this system had over 130 000 contributors.
2/15
The idea of a crowd-sourced system as a moderation tool did not come from Elon - it was announced already back in 2020 when it was called Birdwatch. Musk later rebranded the system as Community Notes and sold it to the platform as something new.
3/15
Vitalik Buterin (@VitalikButerin) has made a very extensive (and technical) analysis on the tool and the Community Notes algorithm as a whole.
I disagree with him on some points, but I really suggest to everyone to read it:
Also, focusing the analysis only on the algorithm and the technical aspects is simplifying the concept, as it rules out the most important variable: human factor.
People are prone to bias and disinformation tends to spread much more aggressively than the truth.
5/15
Twitter's former head of safety, Yoel Roth, has stated that the system was never intended to replace the curation team, but to complement it. But all this of course changed after Elon sacked everyone from Twitter's Trust and Safety in order to save money.
6/15
These sackings have resulted in long response times on reports on hate speech - X's attempts to deal with hateful direct messages has slowed down by 70%.
As of today, the company doesn't have any full-time staff singularly dedicated to hateful conduct issues globally.
7/15
Some Community Notes contributors (who are also NAFO activists) have claimed that the system is riddled with coordinated manipulation, infighting and lack of oversight from the platform. Also, many contributors engage in conspiracy-fueled discussions.
8/15
The Notes system also has a huge problem with its scalability. During events like the 7 Oct 2023 Hamas terrorist attack, the amount of disinformation grows so large, that it's simply impossible for the small community to keep up and check factuality of said content.
9/15
Analysis by NewsGuard showed that the most popular disinformation posts related to the Israel-Hamas war (not so surprisingly originating from serial liars like @jacksonhinklle, @drloupis and @ShaykhSulaiman) failed to receive Community Notes 68% of the time.
10/15
These big accounts also have the ability to fight against the Notes they've received by mobilizing people who support their views. In the most tragicomic instance, @elonmusk claimed, without any evidence, that a Community Note on his post was "gamed by state actors".
11/15
Other than being humiliated and ridiculed, getting Community Noted doesn't really have any major downsides. Noted posts don't provide you income and advertisers can decide if they want to show ads on accounts like @dom_lucre's, but most of these...
12/15
...so-called superspreader accounts make most of their income through other means, namely through the X's subscription system. Also, many of them, including @stillgray and (allegedly) @jacksonhinklle are employed by state actors like Russia and the CCP.
13/15
With accounts that post tens or hundreds posts a day, the Notes are also inefficient - while the Community is trying to put a note on a post that's clearly disinformation, there are already 10 or 20 new ones to replace it in the algorithm.
14/15
To conclude, Community Notes are a non-functional and slow mechanism that's desperately trying to replace the Trust and Safety team. They work on a "mob rule" basis and big enough accounts (including the owner of the platform) can play around the system.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce Oleg Bessedin, a videoblogger and Russia’s favorite mouthpiece in Estonia. Through social media, online groups, and media networks, Bessedin has played an active role in pushing pro-Kremlin narratives to divide Estonian society.
1/13
Oleg is a content creator and businessman with strong ties to pro-Kremlin networks. He runs multiple Facebook groups and media platforms that regularly share Russian state propaganda. Estonia’s Internal Security Service (KAPO) has flagged his platforms as disinfo hubs.
2/13
Bessedin presents himself as an independent journalist, but his content is heavily biased in favor of Russian narratives. He portrays Estonia and the West as corrupt, aggressive, and anti-Russian while defending Russia’s actions on the world stage.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll discuss the Russian shadow fleet: a network of ships that operate in secret, dodge sanctions, smuggle oil, and undermine the security of Europe’s seas while keeping Putin’s war machine running.
1/15
To understand the shadow fleet, let’s rewind to 2022. Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and the West responded with economic shockwaves. Sanctions were imposed, Russian oil was banned, and a price cap was introduced. For Russia, this was a disaster.
2/15
But Putin is well-familiar with economic warfare. Russia quickly created a “shadow fleet” – an armada of rusting oil tankers with false identities and forged paperwork,and illegal trade routes designed to dodge Western sanctions and keep the rubles flowing.
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll re-introduce the American-British social media personalities, Tristan and Andrew Tate (@tatethetalisman and @cobratate).
They’re best-known for their social media grifts and allegations of human trafficking and rape.
1/22
The history of the Tate brothers was introduced thoroughly in my original Vatnik Soup thread, but since then so much has happened that this pathetic duo needs another review. The soup will go through a lot of the evidence and videos in which the Tates incriminate themselves.
2/22
The Tates became (relatively) rich through their webcam (pimping?) businesses and self-help courses targeted at young, desperate (incel?) men. At some point, they had up to 75 women working for them, and the brothers later admitted that the business was a “total scam”.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce Russia’s main narratives and explain how they are being spread online by Russian operatives and MAGA Republicans. After three years of war, Russia still relies on old narratives, now amplified by the Trump administration.
1/25
Throughout the years – or even decades – Russia’s narratives against the West have remained largely the same. Many of them date back to the Cold War era, when the KGB and CIA were bitter enemies. But since then, the media landscape has drastically changed.
2/25
Russian propaganda and disinformation revolves around four main themes:
1) Russia is the victim, 2) Historical revisionism, 3) The “decadent West” is collapsing, 4) The CIA and/or “evil Anglo-Saxons” are behind every revolution & anti-Kremlin activity.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a former Ukrainian politician and president, Viktor Yanukovych. He’s best known for selling his country to Russia, trying to turn it into an authoritarian state, and eventually fleeing to Moscow once his plan failed.
1/22
Now that Russia and the US are planning to replace president Zelenskyy with someone who’s more willing to sell the country to them (most probably Viktor Medvedchuk or one of his cronies), it’s a good time to remind people how Yanukovych and Putin almost took over Ukraine.
2/22
Yanukovych’s first attempt at power came in 2004, when he “won” the Ukrainian presidential election through massive fraud. The rigged vote sparked the Orange Revolution, a wave of protests that forced the election to be re-run. His opponent, pro-Western candidate…
Russia uses Tucker Carlson as a vessel for its propaganda. Many of the most popular narratives originate from his misinformation-filled show, which is funded by Elon. Some of these lies include:
- Bioweapons labs
- Gonzalo Lira being a "journalist"
-Zelenskyy being a dictator
- The banning of the Russian Orthodox Church
- The banning of Viktor Medvedchuk's pro-Kremlin propaganda network
- Putin's interview and revisionism
- That ridiculous St. Petersburg propaganda piece
Bob Amsterdam, who Tucker has interviewed a few times is paid by a Russian oligarch, Vadym Novynskyi.
We now know from the Tenet Media case that Russian state media wants to spread Tucker's verbal diarrhea everywhere. These fake stories have finally made their way to Trump.