A mutawatir report reaches the listener through a sufficiently large number of transmitters at all relevant stages, such that ordinary collusion upon a lie is deemed impossible, their report rests on sense perception, and the report produces certainty for its hearer.
«وَتِلْكَ الْكَثْرَةُ أَحَدُ شُرُوطِ التَّوَاتُرِ»
That multiplicity is one of the conditions of tawatur.
“Many people said so” is only a starting point. The definition also demands continuity of this multiplicity across the chain, the practical impossibility of collusion, a sensory basis, and the resulting knowledge. The absence of one requirement changes the classification.