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UrduRutgers’ Britt Paris, a critical informatics scholar who tracks misinformation campaigns, is available to comment on Twitter’s use of “pre-bunking” voter misinformation for the remainder of the 2020 presidential election cycle.
“Twitter’s pre-bunking is based in inoculation theory that prepares pre-emptive messaging to counter disinformation by anticipating what false and/or dangerous propaganda will be sewn by provocateurs during key events,” said Paris. “This concept has been kicked around for a while in social psychology and some have applied it to combat contemporary contexts of mis/disinformation. A great example of this can be seen in the “Bad News” study developed by Roozebeck and Van Der Liden.”
“To my knowledge, this is the first time a social media company is engaging in this tactic. We would be able to say more about pre-bunking, its efficacy in the contemporary climate and what types of pre-bunking are and are not likely to work if the company had listened to researchers and tested this practice in place before now.”
For video of Paris discussing “What Happens Next with Misinformation,” click here.
Paris is an assistant professor of library and information science at Rutgers University–New Brunswick’s School of Communication and Information.
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