Lately Twitter / X community notes have been fighting back against misinformation about vaping and THR (Tobacco Harm Reduction).
It is such a wonderful thing to see – that the public are able to counteract blatant lies from large organisations!
What Are Community Notes?
On the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) there is a method to directly dispute a claim in a post / tweet.
I quote below from X’s community notes explanation page…
“Community Notes aim to create a better informed world by empowering people on X to collaboratively add context to potentially misleading posts. Contributors can leave notes on any post and if enough contributors from different points of view rate that note as helpful, the note will be publicly shown on a post. Sign up to become a contributor.
Community Notes are now publicly visible to everyone in the US. For more information, we have included responses to frequently asked questions below, but you can learn more through the Community Notes Guide as well.
This is an open and transparent process, that’s why we’ve made the Community Notes algorithm open source and publicly available on GitHub, along with the data that powers it so anyone can audit, analyze or suggest improvements.”
You can sign up to be a community notes contributor here or simply vote on informative notes you see whilst scrolling through your timeline.
Find out more in this article from X about Community notes.
How Have Community Notes Been Fighting Misinformation?
One of the best examples are the anti-vaping tweets from the WHO (World Health Organisation).
Nearly every ill-informed anti-vaping post they make is suffixed with a well-researched community note. These notes include reputable sources which directly address the claims in the post.
A few examples are below – much love to X user de vangrailmaaier (ACVODA) (of the Acvoda foundation which is a Dutch group of vaping consumers) for collating some of these!
#CommunityNotes on the WHO so farhttps://t.co/XppvISXuJohttps://t.co/0dP8M2uaQyhttps://t.co/0HM2kLLkoUhttps://t.co/2WVcK89p3shttps://t.co/dAlwuenX6Zhttps://t.co/o4U5sLit37https://t.co/OpN6LBbZkJhttps://t.co/ZtAz5H65hvhttps://t.co/vzGJOhrtsehttps://t.co/yNZtTJUuSk
— de vangrailmaaier (ACVODA) (@plopnl) June 12, 2024
All tobacco and nicotine products extremely damage health.#QuitSmoking#Eid pic.twitter.com/2dFnQXoAP4
— WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (@WHOEMRO) April 12, 2024
❌Myth: Vape & heated tobacco products are safer alternatives to cigarettes.
✅Truth: These harmful products contain nicotine & toxic substances that can have harmful effects & long-term consequences on brain development, particularly for children & adolescents#QuitThisMonth pic.twitter.com/CNQuFKCcT6
— WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (@WHOEMRO) March 17, 2024
Q: What looks cute, smells good, but is designed to kill?
A: A vape!The tobacco industry spends tons of money designing their products to look appealing, but it’s time we expose the truth and protect young people from the harmful effects of tobacco. 🚭🚭🚭#TobaccoExposed pic.twitter.com/ZgQrNeNXim
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) June 11, 2024
Both conventional tobacco products and e-cigarettes pose risks to health.
E-cigarette use can negatively impact the health of your brain, lungs and heart and it is linked to an increased risk of heart disease and lung disorders. 🤒🧠🫁🫀 pic.twitter.com/9npVrl8hbH
— World Health Organization (WHO) Western Pacific (@WHOWPRO) January 14, 2024
Single-use vapes can’t be recycled which means that those 16 000 novelty flavoured vapes fill up our landfills with toxic chemicals.
Will we keep letting big tobacco get away with this? It’s time to step in and say no.#TobaccoExposed pic.twitter.com/V0mehRklHE
— World Health Organization (WHO) (@WHO) May 20, 2024
All tobacco and nicotine products extremely damage health.#QuitSmoking#Eid pic.twitter.com/2dFnQXoAP4
— WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (@WHOEMRO) April 12, 2024
Please sign up to join in to help fight misinformation or just vote on the notes you view as helpful. You will be asked specifically why you find it helpful and will be given a choice of options.
I love this method of counteracting bizarre claims made online! Big up the democratic community notes system!
