AS misinformation and disinformation continue to shape public discourse, experts on Friday gathered to discuss the role of community notes in combating false information.
Hosted by The FactCheckHub as part of activities marking this year’s International Fact-Checking Day, the discussion explored the evolving landscape of misinformation, particularly how user-generated annotations on platforms like X (formerly Twitter) influence public perception of truth.
The X space titled: Fact-Checking in the age of Community Notes, took place on April 4, 2025. It was moderated by the Editor of The FactCheckHub, Opeyemi Kehinde and featured contributions from media and fact-checking professionals who shared insights on the impacts and limitations of community-driven interventions in verifying information online.
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The discussion primarily focused on the role of Community Notes and how they compare to professional fact-checking. The conversation drew diverse perspectives from media professionals, fact-checkers, and netizens actively navigating the ever-complex online information space.
Ahmad Aluko, an information disorder analyst, speaking at the event said that confirmation bias is an inevitable part of how people process information, particularly within Nigeria’s socio-political context.
He pointed out that community notes, though useful, tend to reinforce personal biases, as users are more likely to engage with notes that reflect their existing beliefs. Unlike traditional fact-checking, which involves thorough verification processes, he said community notes often serve as shortcuts that may prioritize validation over truth.
“Confirmation bias is very difficult to stem because at every point in time, everyone has a bias; it could be political, religious, socio-cultural. So in this age, what most people now do is that they will be looking for community notes that actually align with their bias as against what used to be the general norm.
“Whereas an independent body will do a fact-check and they will publish it with a web link. So even if you have your preconceived bias, by the time you look at the verification process, you can see that the verification will supersede whatever bias the author has,” he noted.
For Chinwe Blessing, a broadcast journalist, she emphasized that the responsibility of verifying information ultimately lies with the users. She noted that while community notes are not perfect, they serve as a useful tool to prompt skepticism and encourage users to question what they see online.
“I’m always of the opinion that the onus of checking your information is on the end user. The reason why I upload community notes is because it’s better than nothing. There are certain things you see online and you question it. It could be, someone taking a clip out of a movie and saying that it happened in real life and the community notes would say, oh no, it’s not right,” she said.
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She explained that community notes should be understood for what they are — user-generated inputs rather than professional verdicts.
“People should be able to know that community notes are basically just notes, they are comments made by people like you, not necessarily by professionals,” Blessing stated.
Also speaking, Caleb Ijioma, the Executive Director of RoundCheck offered a more critical perspective pointing out that unlike professional fact-checking which delivers definitive verdicts such as false or misleading, community notes often use vague ratings like ‘very helpful’ or ‘less helpful.’
“When you hear this is false, especially from a fact-checking organization or probably from somebody who’s a fact-checker, you’ll understand and see that this person has actually done their research.
“But now, let’s compare that to the ratings from community notes like very helpful, less helpful. I know how to use community notes, and I think in my own opinion, I really do not like community notes because I’ve always seen that it has a lot of issues and challenges,” Ijioma stated.
Additionally, he questioned the expertise of contributors to community notes, emphasizing that since anyone can participate, there is no assurance that those creating the notes fully understand how to assess information integrity.
“Anybody can join the community notes and apply or give opinions based on what you think or if it actually matches your political view and all of that. But at the end of the day, if there is no consensus, these community notes will not be made public. There needs to be some form of agreement before it can actually made it to the public,” Ijioma added.
In her remarks, Simbiat Bakare, the copy editor at Dubawa highlighted the possibility of community notes replacing institutional fact-checking but noted that they can work hand-in-hand.
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“Tech giants really need to look at the fact that you can’t replace one with the other. It’s okay to empower more voices and it’s okay to empower more communities to share their views, but it cannot be compared with how fact-checking, especially in Africa, has evolved. So you have organizations who, after they do this fact-check, they go the extra mile to promote it on social media, to translate them into different languages,” she pointed out.
She emphasized the importance of transparency, accessibility, and audience engagement—areas where fact-checkers have already made significant progress.
“Community notes will still have to evolve. You still have to look at the issue of transparency, accessibility and that is already what fact-checking has been able to establish.
“So as fact-checkers, we need to just continue to do what we are doing, show our professionalism as we’ve always done, find more engaging ways for our fact-checks to go out. And by the time they test the impacts of community notes, they will still come back to fact-checkers,” Bakare summarised.
Seasoned fact-checker and researcher Fatimah Quadri has written numerous fact-checks, explainers, and media literacy pieces for The FactCheckHub in an effort to combat information disorder. She can be reached at sunmibola_q on X or fquadri@icirnigeria.org.
