Google Launches Anti-Misinformation Campaign In India

London:

Google’s Jigsaw subsidiary is launching a brand new anti-misinformation mission in India, geared toward stopping deceptive data that has been blamed for inciting violence, a high government stated.

The initiative will use “prebunking” movies – designed to counter false claims earlier than they develop into 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 slicing its belief and security groups, regardless of new proprietor Elon Musk saying it is not going to develop into 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 might be larger in scope as it should cope with a number of native languages — Bengali, Hindi and Marathi — and canopy various sections of a rustic populated by over a billion individuals.

“This offered a possibility to analysis prebunking in a non-western, international south market,” stated Beth Goldman, Jigsaw’s head of analysis and improvement.

Like different nations, misinformation spreads quickly throughout India, principally by way of social media, creating political and spiritual tensions.

Indian authorities officers have referred to as on tech firms resembling Google, Meta, and Twitter to take stronger motion towards the unfold of faux information.

The Ministry of Data and Broadcasting (I&B) has repeatedly invoked “extraordinary powers” to dam YouTube channels, and a few Twitter and Fb accounts, allegedly used to unfold dangerous misinformation.

Inflammatory messages have additionally unfold by way of 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 may very well be forwarded, after false claims about little one abductors led to mass beatings of greater than a dozen individuals, a few of whom died.

Working in collaboration with the Alfred Landecker Basis, a pro-democracy group based mostly in Germany, the philanthropic funding agency Omidyar Community India, and numerous smaller regional companions, Jigsaw has produced 5 movies in three totally different languages.

After watching the movies, viewers might be requested to fill in a brief multiple-choice questionnaire, designed to gauge what they’ve discovered about misinformation. The corporate’s current analysis on the topic advised 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, Goldman added.

“By forewarning people and equipping them to identify and refute deceptive arguments, they acquire resilience to being misled sooner or later.”

Outcomes are anticipated to be printed in summer time 2023.

(Aside from the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)