Disinformation is drawing attention as a major risk to society. Code for Japan uses data to understand how misinformation and disinformation spread, and publishes material that journalists, researchers and public bodies can use. In July 2025, our work was selected for the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications' FY2025 program for developing and demonstrating technologies against online misinformation and disinformation, and we are developing BirdXplorer under it. Our work has three parts:

Tools: BirdXplorer, for searching and analyzing Community Notes on X
Analysis: Community Notes during elections and disasters, and the answers and sources of generative AI
Convening: study sessions with journalists and researchers, and events on countering disinformation

BirdXplorer

Community Notes is X's feature for adding context to posts. Approved contributors write and rate notes, and a note is shown to all users once enough contributors rate it as helpful. X publishes Community Notes data daily. BirdXplorer combines this data with post data and estimated languages and topics, and makes it available through an API. Anyone can use the BirdXplorer website (in Japanese):

Community Notes search
Monthly reports (published monthly since January 2026)
Special feature: 2026 House of Representatives election

BirdXplorer is developed as open source on GitHub.

Elections and Disasters

We analyze which posts receive Community Notes during elections and disasters and how they spread, and we also provide the underlying data to news organizations. Published analyses include:

Analysis of the Hyogo gubernatorial election with Professor Hiroyuki Fujishiro, Hosei University (March 2025, in Japanese)
Preliminary analysis of the 2025 House of Councillors election, presented at an event co-hosted with the Embassy of Canada (event report)
Special feature on the 2026 House of Representatives election (BirdXplorer website)

Analysis of Generative AI Responses

We regularly ask major generative AI models about issues concerning Japan and international affairs in several languages, and measure whose government positions their answers align with and which sources they cite. In October 2026, The Japan Institute of International Affairs (JIIA) published our research report on why the Japanese government's communications have difficulty reaching generative AI answers.

JIIA research report (October 2026, in Japanese)

Narrative Observatory

Launched in June 2026 with SEARCHLIGHT Inc., the Narrative Observatory continuously tracks misinformation and disinformation narratives across platforms. We hold a monthly, invitation-only study session for journalists, researchers and practitioners. See the activity report (in Japanese).

Events

We hold events on countering disinformation that bring together engineers, journalists, researchers and public servants. In 2024 we held Hack the Disinfo, a hackathon on countering disinformation.

February 2026: Community Notes case studies and hands-on session with BirdXplorer, with Professor Fujishiro (event page)
September 2025: event on countering disinformation co-hosted with the Embassy of Canada, with a panel including a researcher from JIIA (event report)
June 2025: Community Notes and elections, a workshop ahead of the House of Councillors election (event page)
2024: Hack the Disinfo 2024, Japan's first hackathon on countering disinformation (website)

Reports

All reports are in Japanese.

Contact

We work with companies and organizations in Japan and with partners abroad, including in Taiwan. We welcome inquiries such as:

News organizations: Community Notes data from elections and disasters, interviews
Researchers: joint research, data use
Public bodies and companies: commissioned research, training and talks, sponsorship and partnerships

Please contact us through our contact form.