Unpublished: Nearly 90% of Community Notes in X Remain Unpublished, According to Study
In a recent study conducted by the Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas (DDIA), it was revealed that more than 90% of notes submitted through X's Community Notes system are never published[2][3][4]. This community-driven moderation model, which allows volunteers to contribute contextual notes or corrections to posts, has a very low publication rate.
The study, which analysed 1.76 million notes published by X between January 2021 and March 2025, found that among English-language notes, the publication rate dropped from 9.5% in 2023 to just 4.9% in early 2025[2]. This low publication rate raises questions about the program's claims of being fast, scalable, and transparent[2].
The publication of notes relies on community ratings, with users rating proposed notes as "helpful" or "not helpful." However, a vast number of notes remain unpublished due to lack of consensus among users during rating. The time it takes for a note to go live has improved over the years, dropping from an average of more than 100 days in 2022 to 14 days in 2025.
Despite the low publication rate, the study emphasises that understanding the operation, benefits, and shortcomings of Community Notes is critical for improving its utility[1]. It is worth noting that the system has become a global prototype for crowd-sourced content moderation and is viewed by tech platforms as an alternative to professional fact-checking.
One of the most prolific contributors to the Community Notes program in English is a bot-like account dedicated to flagging crypto scams. Studies have shown that Community Notes can work to dispel some falsehoods such as vaccine misinformation, but they work best for topics where there is broad consensus[5].
However, some researchers have cautioned that Community Notes users can be motivated by partisan motives and tend to target their political opponents[6]. This raises concerns about the system's impartiality and its ability to effectively combat misinformation.
The CEO of X, Linda Yaccarino, introduced Community Notes during her tenure and resigned after leading the company through a major transformation. The reasons for her exit are unclear, but it came as Musk's AI chatbot Grok triggered an online firestorm over its anti-Semitic comments.
While the low publication rate of Community Notes raises concerns about its effectiveness as a fact-checking tool, it is important to remember that the system has potential as a community-driven fact-checking mechanism. Improving its operation and understanding its limitations can help to increase its impact on curbing misinformation.
Sources: [1] Digital Democracy Institute of the Americas (DDIA) study (2025) [2] The Verge (2025) [3] The New York Times (2025) [4] Wired (2025) [5] ScienceDirect (2023) [6] Pew Research Center (2023)
The study highlights that the low publication rate of Community Notes, a global prototype for crowd-sourced content moderation, may raise questions about its efficiency in policing social-media, politics, general-news, and entertainment, especially given the system's dependency on community consensus. However, researchers have also noted that Community Notes can be effective in combating misinformation, particularly on topics with broad consensus, such as vaccine misinformation.
