Seeing should not be believing
Information is literally at the tip of our fingertips today. At the same time, we are constantly bombarded with information from different sources, from user-generated sites like Instagram to centralized outlets like The Straits Times. However, knowing that different stakeholders have their own agendas, we cannot believe that all the information we receive is true. Misinformation poses a problem in our society, especially when people act on it.
“Insanity in an individual is something rare, but in groups, parties, nation, and epochs it is the rule”
Nitetszche
As a community, we need to come up with guidelines on what to do with misinformation and who should decide what is misinformation?
Social cost of misinformation
Misinformation rode to prominence during the many election campaigns conducted globally in recent years. Misinformation has been used to drive a wedge through the social fabric. With the global pandemic ongoing, it is even more important that we stay united and not allow misinformation to divide or misguide us. In Singapore, a recent example of fake news of a lockdown created panic among citizens. The government stepped forward promptly and clarified misunderstandings on its own site before this misinformation got out of hand.
During a COVID-19 time, misinformation creates unnecessary fear that creates costs on fellow citizens: people panic-buy due to misinformation and start to hoard essentials, causing inconvenience and inefficiency. In more extreme cases, it causes unnecessary conflict where innocent people can get hurt. From mass hate killings in Nigeria to WhatsApp lynching in India, fake news has torn societies apart and turned people against each other.
From an economic perspective, misinformation cost the US economy up to $78 billion dollar in 2019. According to the research done by University of Baltimore, the majority of the cost is attributed to financial loss in the stock market. According to the same research, another $200m will be spent on fake news for the upcoming 2020 presidential election.
Is technology at fault?
It is easy to blame technology for this. Technology platform on its own is an agnostic tool. Like any tool, it is wielded by the user to meet his/her objectives. When the objective is biased,the technological output will also be biased.
We believe that technology should remain neutral as an information disseminating platform and not a gatekeeper of information. This ensures that the internet and social media remains an alternative source of information compared to traditional media (tv newspaper etc) where there is a gatekeeper who decides what is published. Therefore, the mantle of fighting misinformation should rest on the shoulders of others. Governments and social media companies have put in major efforts to tackle misinformation.
Government and social media companies cannot solve misinformation alone
While the ‘bad guys’ misuse technology to spread false news, authorities like the government and social media giants like Facebook have been trying their best to stop the spread. Some of their efforts made by big technology platforms include implementing laws, fact checkers and recruiting content reviewers to take down malicious posts. However, these efforts have their limitations and associated risks as well.
One way governments have stepped in is by passing laws with severe punishments on misinformation. However, laws behave more as a deterrence and an avenue to seek justice after damage is done. The threat of legal punishment deters people from committing the crime in the first place and reduces the probability of it. It is mostly targeted at the creator of misinformation and does not solve for the spread of misinformation.
Furthermore, there are natural limitations to depending on human content reviewers and many malicious posts can go undetected. This is especially so because misinformation is often spread by people in the heat of the moment, emotionally and impulsively. It is in the intention of fake news to evoke a strong emotional response from viewers, prompting them to hit the share button. The sharing of such malicious posts can be done in a split second. It is hence rather difficult for agencies like governments and Twitter to regulate what is happening online in real-time.
Fundamentally, relying on the tech companies and governments to do that job is a double edged sword. If they are the sole agencies responsible for combating fake news, we are back to the age of traditional media with gatekeepers of information. They alone should not have the monopolistic power to decide what is real and fake.
Community based approach to stopping misinformation
We believe that third parties can play a crucial role in deciding what is fake news. A third party that is community based and bottom up. At Better.sg, we use technological tools to bring about positive change in Singapore from bottom up. We aim to fill the gap left by government authorities and social media platform administrators in the battle against misinformation.
Examples of some of the questions we seek to solve:
- How can we encourage more respectful online discussions?
- How can we reduce the spread of fake news?
- How can we help users break out of their filter bubbles and echo chambers for information?
Riding on the election fever in Singapore, we launched a tool called MediaSpin. The objective is to put together how different websites report the same issue. The idea here is not to be a gatekeeper of information, but to provide a platform for members of the public to quickly see an issue from different perspectives and how other readers view the issue.
Prior to MediaSpin, we developed Debate.sg, an online discussion platform for debates. Confirm.sg, gamified quiz to help readers differentiate real news from fake ones. Oppi, a crowdsourced news platform on what others think about the issues you care about.
Over time, we want to build a toolkit that builds the following into muscle memory of online readers:
- Read an article online
- Hold the emotional urge to re-share
- Verify the source
- View the content from a different lens
- Look up what are other sources talking about the same issue
- Ask myself do i still share this article
A community and data driven journey ahead
These projects are the start of a fun and long journey in combating misinformation as a community. We see this as a flywheel effect; the more articles we analyse, the more useful it becomes for readers, the more widespread the tool will become. Another project in the pipeline is “SG VeriFact”, a new/rumour mill tool to improve media literacy (reach out to find out and participate).
Our vision is to have simple tools where readers can quickly compare online articles or images in real-time against other sources that talk about the same issue.
We are thinking to build the tool around these 3 key principles:
- Non-intrusive and non-technical interface
- Equally emotional counteraction: to calm down, check first before sharing
- Fun to check and verify information
At Better.sg, we believe in bringing passionate people together to build tech that benefits communities in Singapore and beyond. Do reach out if you want to contribute, nerd out together or just have a coffee!
