Recently, there have been multiple news’s stories about how countries like Russia and Iran along with US citizens who’ve been using US social media sites to execute their disinformation propaganda campaigns, designed to influence voters in their selection of preferred elected officials during the 2024 US presidential election season.
Can you believe that there’s a well-researched proven way called pre-bunking to counter the effectiveness of the flood of disinformation propaganda by nefarious actors? Google, Jigsaw (a division of Google) and other internet media information centers have already successfully implemented prebunking programs in foreign countries but have no plans to do likewise in the USA.
As per a Washington Post article, “Prebunking draws inspiration from “inoculation theory,” which was developed by the social psychologist William J. McGuire in the 1960s. McGuire posited that you could prepare people to reject a misguided argument by first exposing them to a weakened form of that argument, along with a strong refutation of it — a vaccine for the mind. Then when people encounter that argument in the wild, the theory goes, they recognize it and are less likely to fall for it.”
It seems that in the USA, these internet titans are fearful of displeasing the GOP MAGA coalition based on 1st amendment rights and freedom of speech issues.
Just look at how the GOP MAGA pundits, legislators and right-wing media spokespeople have recently gone overboard, whining about the ABC moderators of the September 2024 presidential debate were being unfair in that it was rigged with 3 against the ex-president because the 2 moderators dared to fact check the ex-president’s outrageous assertions like Haitian immigrants have been eating pet cats in Springfield, Ohio community; how doctors execute post-birth babies as a form of abortion which is a criminal act in every state in the USA; and his description of a recent comment on how he lost the 2020 election by a hair as a form of sarcasm.
My thinking is that there could be prebunking public education videos, games like Bad News, or cartoons that are nonpartisan. All voters could benefit by learning how to be more discerning in evaluating news content for accuracy and truthfulness.
US voters deserve better!
Dear GOP MAGA political operatives, as of 2024, there’re over 487,000 Haitians living in Florida, making the lie about Haitians eating pets, self-destructive.
As per an August 27, 2021 Psychology Today article by Susan A. Nolan and Michael Kimball, “What Is Prebunking?:”:
Excerpt:
“The process of debunking lies, tactics, or sources before they strike” – is so important. For example, a team of researchers in the UK recently published the results of an examination of prebunking. They studied an online misinformation game called Bad News, a choose-your-own-adventure-style website with a cheeky sense of humor. The goal of the game is for players to become a “disinformation and fake news tycoon.” Players gain (ill-gotten) credibility and followers through shady online behaviors, including through social media. Gameplay might include, say, Tweeting under a fake presidential account for Joe Biden that he plans to “rename Canada to North Dakota #YouGotAnnexed.” If the player gains enough credibility and followers in the game, they can earn badges for “skills” like trolling, polarization, and impersonation. By having players emulate bad online behavior, Bad News seeks to make us better consumers of news, showing readers how to more readily spot trolling, polarization, impersonation, and other disinformation tricks.
See: ‘Pre-Bunking’ Videos Shows Promise in Fight Against Misinformation/ NBC4 Washington…
‘Prebunking’ teaches people how to spot false information /2022 NPR…
In the recent September 10th presidential debate between the GOP MAGA ex-president and VP Kamala Harris, VP Harris resorted to pre-bunking as a successful tactic to counter the ex-president’s usage of the Gish Gallop style of debating, the firehose torrent of lies, misleading and outrageous claims that makes it difficult for an opponent to respond in a limited time frame. She prewarned the audience of voters about how Trump would be resorting to lies to paint her in a negative light in order to win.
Here’re examples from a September 11, 2024 INK analysis, “Kamala won by being all the things – by Anand Giridharadas:”
Excerpts:
Prebunking is explaining to people how they are being (or, better yet, will be) manipulated, what the motive is, how the con works, how the lie will be crafted and how it will function, and, for extra credit, who benefits from it and how. In the age of Trump, too many of his opponents have been all debunk, no prebunk.
But in last night’s debate, again and again, Harris rose to the meta level and explained Trump’s ways in advance so as to inoculate against their infectiousness. “I’m going to tell you all, in this debate tonight, you’re going to hear from the same old, tired playbook, a bunch of lies, grievances and name-calling,” she said in the first minutes. In another moment, she prebunked any professions Trump might make to be admired by foreign autocrats for his strength: “It is absolutely well known that these dictators and autocrats are rooting for you to be president again because they’re so clear, they can manipulate you with flattery and favors.”
The following articles explain how prebunking in a nonpartisan way has been effectively implemented in several countries prior to elections…
The AP did an August 24, 2022 story by David Klepper about pre-bunking, “‘Pre-bunking’ :
Excerpts:
“The swift spread of falsehoods that has been blamed in many countries for increased polarization and an erosion of trust in democratic institutions, journalism and science.”
“But countering or stopping misinformation has proven elusive.”
“New findings from university researchers and Google, however, reveal that one of the most promising responses to misinformation may also be one of the simplest.”
“In a paper published 2022 in the journal Science Advances, the researchers detail how short online videos that teach basic critical thinking skills can make people better able to resist misinformation.”
“The researchers created a series of videos similar to a public service announcement that focused on specific misinformation techniques — characteristics seen in many common false claims that include emotionally charged language, personal attacks or false comparisons between two unrelated items.”
“Researchers then gave people a series of claims and found that those who watched the videos were significantly better at distinguishing false information from accurate information.”
“It’s an approach called “pre-bunking” and it builds on years of research into an idea known as inoculation theory that suggests exposing people to how misinformation works, using harmless, fictional examples, can boost their defenses to false claims.” “With the findings in hand, Google plans to roll out a series of pre-bunking videos soon in Eastern Europe focused on scapegoating, which can be seen in much of the misinformation about Ukrainian refugees. That focus was chosen by Jigsaw, a division of Google that works to find new ways to address misinformation and extremism.”
“Pre-bunking videos, however, don’t target specific claims, and they make no assertions about what is true or not. Instead, they teach the viewer how false claims work in general — whether it’s a claim about elections or NASA’s moon landings, or the latest outbreak of the avian flu.”
As per the May 26, 2024 Washington Post article by Cat Zakrzewski, Joseph Menn, Noami Nix and Will Oremus, “Debunking misinformation failed. Welcome to ‘pre-bunking:’
Excerpts:
“Before European Union 2024 elections, Google and other organizations blanketed millions of voters with cartoon ads on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram to educate voters about common tactics used by far-right candidates to propagate lies and rumors on social media or in email.”
“In addition to its work in the European Union, Google worked with a popular local influencer to run prebunking ads ahead of Indonesia’s elections in February. But one of the company’s partners said Google has been hesitant to launch a similar effort in the United States, where Republican lawmakers including House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (Ohio) argue that the companies are censoring conservative viewpoints.”
Gronda Morin 