Warnings That Work: Combating Misinformation Without Deplatforming
“They’re killing people.” President Biden lambasted Facebook last week for allowing vaccine misinformation to proliferate on its platform. Facebook issued a sharp rejoinder , highlighting the many steps it has taken to promote accurate public health information and expressing angst about government censorship.
Here’s the problem: Both are right. Five years after Russia’s election meddling, and more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, misinformation remains far too rampant on social media . But content removal and account deplatforming are blunt instruments fraught with free speech implications. Both President Biden and Facebook have taken steps to dial down the temperature since last week’s dustup, but the fundamental problem remains: How can platforms effectively combat misinformation with steps short of takedowns? As our forthcoming research demonstrates, providing warnings to users can make a big difference, but not all warnings are created equal.
The theory behind misinformation warnings is that if a social media platform provides an informative notice to a user, that user will then make more informed decisions about what information to read and believe. In the terminology of free speech law and policy, warnings could act as a form of counterspeech for misinformation. Facebook recognized as early as 2017 that warnings could alert users to untrustworthy content, provide relevant facts, and give context that helps users avoid being misinformed. Since then, Twitter, YouTube, and other platforms have adopted warnings as a primary tool for responding to misinformation about COVID-19, elections, and other contested topics.
