The initiative will use “prebunking” movies – designed to counter false claims earlier than they turn out to be widespread – circulated on the corporate’s YouTube platform and different social media websites.
Google’s efforts to problem the unfold of misinformation mark a distinction with rival Twitter which is reducing its belief and security groups, regardless of new proprietor Elon Musk saying it is not going to turn out to be a “free-for-all hellscape”.
Google lately performed an experiment in Europe the place it sought to counter anti-refugee narratives on-line within the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The experiment in India can be larger in scope as it’ll cope with a number of native languages — Bengali, Hindi and Marathi — and canopy numerous sections of a rustic populated by over a billion folks.
“This presented an opportunity to research prebunking in a non-western, global south market,” stated Beth Goldberg, Jigsaw’s head of analysis and improvement.
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Like different nations, misinformation spreads quickly throughout India, largely by way of social media, creating political and spiritual tensions.
Indian authorities officers have known as on tech firms equivalent to Google, Meta, and Twitter to take stronger motion towards the unfold of faux news.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) has repeatedly invoked “extraordinary powers” to dam YouTube channels, and a few Twitter and Facebook accounts, allegedly used to unfold dangerous misinformation.
Inflammatory messages have additionally unfold through Meta’s messaging service Whatsapp, which has greater than 200 million customers in India. In 2018, the corporate curbed the variety of instances a message might be forwarded, after false claims about little one abductors led to mass beatings of greater than a dozen folks, a few of whom died.
Working in collaboration with the Alfred Landecker Foundation, a pro-democracy group based mostly in Germany, the philanthropic funding agency Omidya Network India, and plenty of smaller regional companions, Jigsaw will produce 5 movies in three completely different languages.
After watching the movies, viewers can be requested to fill in a brief multiple-choice questionnaire, designed to gauge what they’ve realized about misinformation. The firm’s current analysis on the topic prompt viewers have been 5% extra prone to establish misinformation after watching such movies.
The Indian initiative will concentrate on points that resonate within the nation, Goldberg added.
“By forewarning individuals and equipping them to spot and refute misleading arguments, they gain resilience to being misled in the future.”
Results are anticipated to be revealed in summer season 2023.