X’s Community Notes platform failed to flag 93.1% of false claims related to the US midterm elections, according to a NewsGuard study released Wednesday, which identified 13 posts that went untagged while Musk himself pushed at least four unverified claims.
The uncorrected posts have already amassed millions of interactions ahead of the November 3, 2026 midterms, potentially swaying public opinion in key swing states.
Community Notes, launched by Musk’s platform in late 2022, relies on crowd‑sourced annotations, yet researchers argue it works best on topics with broad consensus; political content tends to be partisan, diluting its effectiveness.
Meta’s recent pivot away from third‑party fact‑checkers and its rollout of a similar community‑based model in 16 Spanish‑speaking Latin American countries has raised questions about the viability of crowd‑sourced corrections, the Oversight Board noted.
A resident of Albany, New York, who followed the unverified claim that the state had banned voter ID, said he was "confused" and would now seek official confirmation before casting his ballot, illustrating the real‑world impact of unchecked misinformation.
NewsGuard has urged X to enhance its moderation algorithms and integrate professional fact‑checkers to curb the spread of falsehoods ahead of the election, while the platform remains silent on concrete changes.