What was the original name of X’s Community Notes feature?

X’s Community Notes feature was originally called Birdwatch.

Twitter launched Birdwatch in 2021 as a community-based system for adding context to potentially misleading posts. Approved contributors could write notes, and the system used a contribution model intended to surface notes that people with different viewpoints found useful.

The project was renamed Community Notes in 2022. The new name remained after Twitter changed its corporate and product branding to X. Its purpose continued to be adding explanatory context rather than simply labeling every disputed post as true or false.

Birdwatch should not be confused with Twitter’s professional verification system or with independent fact-checking organizations. It was a platform feature based on contributions from participating users, with published notes subject to rating and evaluation mechanisms.