Google is collaborating with Cambridge University social scientists to test a feature called ‘pre-bunking.’ As the name implies, Google is attempting to stay ahead of false narratives and debunk them before they spread further.
According to an NBC report, Google, in collaboration with Cambridge University’s Social Decision-Making Lab, showed 90-second cartoons and advertisements to test subjects in an experiment, explaining some common manipulation techniques in cohesive language.
According to the study, which was published in the journal Science Advances, the cartoons successfully raised the test subjects’ awareness about certain misinformation tactics, albeit for a short time. According to the study’s lead author, Jon Roozenbeek, words like ‘fact-checking’ had become politicised in recent years, and thus social media companies needed to find an alternative.
‘Words like ‘fact-checking’ are becoming politicised, which is a problem, so you must find a way around that’, Joe explained. Google is implementing this strategy in Poland, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic after being encouraged by the experiment’s findings. However, the Silicon Valley behemoth has no plans to distribute similar ‘pre-bunk’ videos in the United States ahead of the midterm elections.
It’s worth noting that Google isn’t the only platform that uses ‘pre-bunking’ to protect users from manipulation. Twitter will use a pre-bunk strategy in the midterm elections. As previously reported by WION, Twitter announced a series of steps it was taking to combat misinformation in a blog post earlier this month, ahead of the pivotal November midterm elections in the United States.
Twitter announced the reactivation of its Civic Integrity Policy, which states that tweets that make false claims in order to undermine public trust in an election will be labelled with links to credible information or helpful context. Pre-bunking was also discussed on the microblogging platform, and how it was making a comeback in the November election.
‘We’re also bringing back prebunks in English, Spanish, and all other languages supported by Twitter, in order to stay ahead of misleading narratives and address topics that may be the subject of misinformation. Over the next few months, we’ll place prompts directly on people’s timelines in the United States and in Search when they type related terms, phrases, or hashtags’, read the Twitter blog post.
However, Twitter’s announcement was met with criticism from a certain faction. Some experts argued that in order to stay ahead of the alleged ‘lies,’ the social media giants could once again play the roles of judge, jury, and executioner. Others are skeptical that pre-bunking will have any impact on the ground because the volume of misleading content dwarfs any pre-bunking exercise initiated by tech titans.
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