This Online Game Helps In Fighting False Information Spread
ONLINE GAME – This game helps combat the spread of false information by letting people develop their ability to assess the source of information.
Recurring problems with false information spreading all over different media platforms have been a nuisance recently. Capable individuals are now looking for plausible solutions.
Huge social media platform Facebook has set their aims at groups that spread false information recently.
Meanwhile, a study conducted by researchers from the University of Cambridge proved that an online game can help raising public awareness regarding ‘Fake News’.
The online game allows users to deploy Twitter bots, manipulate photo evidence and startup conspiracy theories.
Study results came back positive after 15,000 users participated in the study.
It was found that users of the “Bad News” game – launched by Cambridge Social Decision-Making Lab or CDSMLab – could be better at detecting false information sources.
Sander van der Linden – director of the CDSMLab – explained the rate at which false information spreads is much faster saying:
“Research suggests that fake news spreads faster and deeper than the truth, so combating disinformation after the fact can be like fighting a losing battle.”
Facebook, as mentioned, also invested so much in their attempt to fight the spread of false information. Russia was also accused of spreading false information recently to manipulate the elections.
Russia, however, denied the allegations.
This is according to an article from GMA News.
The combat false information study was published last Tuesday in the Palgrave Communications journal. It claimed that playing the game even for just ’15 minutes’ helped people develop some sort of “mental antibodies” to fight false information.
The study’s results came back revealing that people who have played the game are 21 percent less likely to accept false information compared to when they haven’t played.
That is all there is to it, at least for now. We’ll post updates as soon as we got them.