Strategies for Combatting Disinformation on Social Media

Abstract

As misinformation flourishes on social media, researchers have dug into strategies to help social media users combat big tech's misinformation ecosystem. It’s a critical challenge, with massive implications for democracy, trust in information systems, and the rights and mental well-being of vulnerable groups. The complexity of the misinformation spread on social media, it must be recognized that no single solution will be enough to mitigate it. Now, researchers outline diverse strategies that, if implemented together, could improve the capacity of social media users to cope with misinformation. For these strategies to be effective, they must be deployed by a variety of stakeholders, including social media companies, governments, and educators, as well as users themselves.To understand how to design these tools, researchers take an interdisciplinary approach that combines findings in cognitive science, computer science, and design. The results of a series of focus groups are first presented, in which social media users shared experiences, concerns about misinformation spread, and ideas about how social media companies could better support them in combating Big Tech's spread of misinformation. The qualitative analysis of these discussions revealed several insights. First, social media users find it difficult to debunk misinformation, in part due to the design of social media platforms. As a response, they recommend that social media platforms be redesigned with a focus on veracity. Second, there is a need for supporting information in cross-referencing it elsewhere. As a response, the design of a "see also" section on social media platforms is recommended. Third, social media users experience the spread of misinformation in complex and context-dependent ways. As a response, they recommend that misinformation content also be given the option to be rated on veracity.

Keywords: disinformation, social media, misinformation strategies, user empowerment, platform design, cognitive science, stakeholder engagement, information veracity