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 explain the Alaska Fiasco and how it marks the peak of Trump’s two-year betrayal of Ukraine. What was sold as “peace talks” turned into a spectacle of weakness, humiliation, empty promises, and photo-ops that handed Putin exactly what he wanted.
1/24
Let’s start with the obvious: Trump desperately wants the gold medal of the Nobel Peace Prize, mainly because Obama got one. That’s why he’s now LARPing as a “peace maker” in every conflict: Israel-Gaza, Azerbaijan-Armenia, India-Pakistan, and of course Ukraine-Russia.
2/24
Another theory is that Putin holds kompromat — compromising material such as videos or documents — that would put Trump in an extremely bad light. Some have suggested it could be tied to the Epstein files or Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about engagement farming: a cynical social media tactic to rack up likes, shares, and comments. From rage farming to AI-powered outrage factories, engagement farming is reshaping online discourse and turning division into profit.
1/23
Engagement farming is a social media tactic aimed at getting maximum likes, shares, and comments, with truth being optional. It thrives on provocative texts, images, or videos designed to spark strong reactions, boost reach, and turn online outrage into clicks and cash.
2/23
One subset of engagement farming is rage farming: a tactic built to provoke strong negative emotions through outrageous or inflammatory claims. By triggering anger or moral outrage, these posts often generate 100s or even 1,000s of heated comments, amplifying their reach.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the autocratic concept of “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars”: the idea that the leader is wise and just, but constantly sabotaged by corrupt advisors. This narrative shields the ruler from blame, and it’s used by both Putin and Trump today.
1/20
The phrase “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars” (Царь хороший, бояре плохие), also known as Naïve Monarchism, refers to a long-standing idea in Russian political culture: the ruler is good and benevolent, but his advisors are corrupt, incompetent and responsible for all failures.
2/20
From this perception, any positive action taken by the government is viewed as being an accomplishment of the benevolent leader, whereas any negative one is viewed as being caused by lower-level bureaucrats or “boyars”, without the approval of the leader.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian politician and First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Sergey Kiriyenko. He’s best known for running both domestic and foreign disinformation and propaganda operations for the Kremlin.
1/20
On paper, and in photos, Kiriyenko is just as boring as most of the Kremlin’s “political technologists”: between 2005-2016 he headed the Rosatom nuclear energy company, but later played a leading role in the governance of Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine.
2/20
What is a political technologist? In Russia, they’re spin doctors & propaganda architects who shape opinion, control narratives, and manage elections — often by faking opposition, staging events, and spreading disinfo to maintain Putin’s power and the illusion of democracy.
Let me show you how a Pakistani (or Indian, they're usually the same) AI slop farm/scam operates. The account @designbonsay is a prime example: a relatively attractive, AI-generated profile picture and a ChatGPT-style profile description are the first red flags.
1/5
The profile's posts are just generic engagement farming, usually using AI-generated photos of celebrities or relatively attractive women.
These posts are often emotionally loaded and ask the user to interact with them ("like and share if you agree!").
2/5
Then there's the monetization part. This particular account sells "pencil art", which again are just AI-generated slop.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American lawyer and politician, Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee). He’s best-known for opposing the aid to Ukraine, undermining NATO by calling the US to withdraw from the alliance, and for fighting with a bunch of braindead dogs online.
1/21
Like many of the most vile vatniks out there, “Based Mike” is a lawyer by profession. He hails from the holy land of Mormons, Utah, where he faces little political competition, allowing him to make the most outrageous claims online without risking his Senate seat.
2/21
Before becoming a senator, Mike fought to let a nuclear waste company dump Italian radioactive waste in Utah, arguing it was fine if they just diluted it. The state said no, the public revolted, and the courts told poor Mikey to sit down.