Google's Jigsaw unit published a report detailing what it calls “the biggest disinformation prebunking experiment on social media” to date designed to make people more resilient to the corrosive effects of online misinformation.
Prebunking is an approach that involves helping people to identify false claims online and thus defend themselves against manipulation. Prebunking videos can be seen by millions when placed on popular platforms. They also avoid the political challenge altogether by focusing not on the topics of false claims, but on the techniques that make viral misinformation so infectious.
Google’s experiment took place last year in September and December and targeted internet users in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Jigsaw developed a series of six short videos prebunking then emerging disinformation narratives and the rhetorical tactics aimed at slandering Ukrainian refugees in Central and Eastern Europe.
“Two videos, each prebunking a different narrative, ran across YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and TikTok in each of the three countries. One video focused on narratives scapegoating Ukrainian refugees for the escalating cost of living while the other highlighted fearmongering over Ukrainian refugees’ purported violent and dangerous nature,” Google explained.
The videos were run on Facebook, TikTok, YouTube and Twitter and reached 80%, 69% and 62% of Czech, Slovakian, and Polish Facebook users, respectively, as well as 68% and 55% of Czech and Slovakian Twitter users, and 50% of Polish TikTok users.
The researchers found that compared to people who hadn’t seen the videos, those who did watch were more likely to be able to identify misinformation techniques, and less likely to spread false claims to others.
Google said that the measurable effects of the campaign varied between countries and videos, as well as across the questions asked to determine the effectiveness of the intervention. Ultimately, the researchers said, the share of viewers who could correctly identify false claims increased by 8% after viewing one of these videos.
“There are many interventions that show tremendous promise in the lab, but fail to produce significant results in the real world, which makes on-platform experiments like these essential. While there’s far more work to be done to understand which messages are likely to be most effective in reaching people and improving their ability to discern manipulative techniques, these initial results demonstrate that prebunking has promise to scale quickly across platforms and to build resilience to disinformation even in the noisy environment of social media,” Google concluded.