NBC spreads misinformation on X about Community Notes, gets corrected by EPIC Community Note

NBC News embarrassed itself on Tuesday after it falsely claimed that it had "gained access" to the systems of X, formerly Twitter, as part of an effort to expose the efficacy of the platform's Community Notes function. The feature is essentially the X community's form of "fact-checking" claims on various posts. 

"Elon Musk has touted Community Notes as a way to fight false and misleading information on X," the outlet wrote on X.

"@NBCNews gained access to the system, and found that on posts containing known misinformation, few posts were ever corrected. Many fact-checks were delayed."

Soon thereafter, NBC's post was tagged with its own Community Note.

"NBC did not 'gain access' to any special Twitter system they merely had one of the many thousands of community notes contributors show them that some misleading posts had yet to have any notes added," the note clarified. "Any 6 month old account with a verified phone number can join the program."

Users on X mocked NBC News for the ironic moment, as well as other instances of the outlet getting slapped with the clarification label:

A recent update on the status of Community Notes, posted by X, explained that as of Monday, more accounts are being granted access to the feature.

"Community Notes typically appear within minutes of content posting," X explained. "Notes on photos and videos also appear whenever the media is reposted by other users. This is a critical tool for helping to combat potential misinformation."

The platform said that it remains committed to "giving people information as quickly as possible," and that more updates will follow in the coming days.