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Twitter launches crowd-sourced fact-checking project

(AP) — Twitter is enlisting its users to help combat misinformation on its service by flagging and notating misleading and false tweets.

The pilot program unveiled Monday, called Birdwatch, allows a preselected group of users — for now, only in the U.S. — who sign up through Twitter. Those who want to sign up must have a U.S.-based phone carrier, verified email and phone number, and no recent Twitter rule violations.

Twitter wants both experts and non-experts to write Birdwatch notes. It cited Wikipedia as a site that thrives with non-experts.

“In concept testing, we’ve seen non-experts write concise, helpful and easy-to-understand notes, often citing valuable expert sources,” the company wrote.

Twitter, along with other social media companies, has been grappling how best to combat misinformation on its service.

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