Researchers Find New Strategy to Fight Misinformation

Researchers Find New Strategy to Fight Misinformation

International researchers and experts at Google are working on a way to prevent false information about Ukrainian refugees¹ from spreading in Eastern Europe. They call their effort "pre-bunking."

The term comes from the word "debunking," which means to show that an idea is untrue. "Pre-" means before. In other words, the researchers aim to prevent misinformation from spreading in the first place.

The idea of pre-bunking is to educate social media users so they can decide on their own if videos, website headlines and social media posts are false.

The researchers started thinking about pre-bunking earlier this year, after thousands of people began fleeing Ukraine following Russia's invasion. The refugees went to places like Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

As refugees arrived in these countries, false claims came with them. Many people saw social media posts about Ukrainians taking jobs, carrying out crimes and taking support from aid organizations even if they did not need it.

There were even stories about Ukrainian refugees painting their national colors of blue and yellow on Polish statues. News reports later suggested the vandalism may have been done by pro-Russian groups hoping to create tension between Ukraine and Poland.

In the past, it has been difficult to prevent this kind of false information from spreading. But the researchers say pre-bunking can help teach people to recognize misinformation. This, in turn, stops the wrong information from spreading.

The researchers involved in the effort are from Cambridge and Bristol universities in Britain as well as the University of Western Australia. Their work appeared recently in the publication Science Advances.

In the report, the researchers explain that short online videos that teach critical thinking skills can help people understand when they are being targeted with misinformation.

The videos explain the common parts of a misinformation campaign. The researchers say the parts are emotional language, personal attacks and false comparisons between two unrelated things.

People who looked at the examples in the videos improved their ability to tell the difference between true and false information.

Google was also part of the study. The division that assisted in the study is called Jigsaw². Beth Goldberg is the head of research there. She said, "We spent quite a bit of time and energy studying the problem." The goal, she said, was to make internet users "more resilient to misinformation."

The researchers are now working to see if the same users can be helped by seeing so-called "booster" videos. Booster videos are additional videos that could add to what the viewers have already learned.

Google will work to show the videos on popular social media sites like YouTube, TikTok and Facebook in the European countries of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The leader of Google's Jigsaw group is Yasmin Green. She said the pre-bunking effort is supposed to work alongside³ Google's other efforts to prevent the spread of false information. She said her group wants to be sure people are "safe and informed online."

The researchers looked at traditional efforts to fight against misinformation. They noted⁴ that they are not always effective. For example, they said the process of "fact-checking" by reporters can be helpful, but it takes a long time. In addition, the process known as content moderation, which is done by social media companies, can be uneven⁵. They noted that Facebook and Twitter are often criticized for not doing enough to remove material that is false or in violation⁶ of their rules.

Instead, the researchers think it is a better idea to give people the tools to look at the material and decide for themselves whether it is false. That helps people judge a wide amount of information.

They also said that fact-checking by reporters can be ignored by people who do not trust some news organizations.

Words in This Story

post–n. information that is put up for the public to see, such as a sign or a message on a website

vandalism –n. the act of deliberately⁷ destroying or damaging property

tension –n. a state in which people or groups disagree with each other and feel anger toward each other

tactic⁸ –n. an action or method that is planned and used to achieve a particular goal

resilient –adj. able to become healthy or strong again after something bad has happened

moderation –n. the act of guiding a discussion involving a group of people, such as the users of a social media site

1 refugees   

n.避难者，难民( refugee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The UN has begun making airdrops of food to refugees. 联合国已开始向难民空投食物。
• They claimed they were political refugees and not economic migrants. 他们宣称自己是政治难民，不是经济移民。

2 jigsaw   

n.缕花锯，竖锯，拼图游戏；vt.用竖锯锯，使互相交错搭接

参考例句：

• A jigsaw puzzle can keep me absorbed for hours.一副拼图就能让我沉醉几个小时。
• Tom likes to work on jigsaw puzzles,too.汤姆也喜欢玩拼图游戏。

3 alongside   

adv.在旁边；prep.和...在一起，在...旁边

参考例句：

• There was a butcher's shop alongside the theatre.剧院旁边有一家肉店。
• Alongside of him stood his uncle.他的身旁站着他叔叔。

4 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

5 uneven   

adj.不平坦的，不规则的，不均匀的

参考例句：

• The sidewalk is very uneven—be careful where you walk.这人行道凹凸不平—走路时请小心。
• The country was noted for its uneven distribution of land resources.这个国家以土地资源分布不均匀出名。

6 violation   

n.违反(行为)，违背(行为)，侵犯

参考例句：

• He roared that was a violation of the rules.他大声说，那是违反规则的。
• He was fined 200 dollars for violation of traffic regulation.他因违反交通规则被罚款200美元。

7 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。

8 tactic   

n.战略，策略；adj.战术的，有策略的

参考例句：

• Reducing prices is a common sales tactic.降价是常用的销售策略。
• She had often used the tactic of threatening to resign.她惯用以辞职相威胁的手法。