A mockup illustrating two posts in a feed: one is labelled as "misleading" whereas the one beneath it has a less severe label of "Stay informed".

Label misleading content; add links to reliable, related content

Reduce spread of true but misleading info

Our confidence rating

Convincing

Share This Intervention

What It Is

Labels like "Get the latest", "Stay informed", or "Misleading" and such, attached to posts that are not technically false but are easily and commonly misinterpreted.

For example, moderators of a Facebook group could label misleading posts and add links to reliable and recent information about topics, or point out logical fallacies in a specific post.

Civic Signal Being Amplified

Understand
:
Show reliable information

When To Use It

Interactive

Proactive interventions are designed to shape the overall user experience and environment. They aim to prevent antisocial behavior in the first place, and to foster a positive community.

Interactive interventions engage users in a dialogue or activity to promote prosocial behavior. They encourage reflection, empathy, or positive interactions.

Reactive interventions are triggered by specific user actions or content. They attempt to mitigate potential negative consequences.

For all social media realms that rely on accurate information. This would come up when people are viewing content after it has been posted or shared.

What Is Its Intended Impact

Cuts down on the spread of misinformation in the form of misinterpreted or intentionally distorted facts.

Evidence That It Works

Evidence That It Works

Yaqub et al. (2020) found that labeling online content as disputed reduced the likelihood of readers to share the labeled content.

Why It Matters

Special Considerations

  • Labeling some misinformation can lead to the "Implied Truth Effect": misleading information that is not labeled is seen as more likely to be true because it has not been labeled (Pennycook et al., 2020)
  • There is some evidence that labeling misinformation is marginally less effective than debunking it after the fact (Brashier et al., 2021)

Examples

This intervention entry currently lacks photographic evidence (screencaps, &c.)

Citations

Real Solutions for Fake News? Measuring the Effectiveness of General Warnings and Fact‑Check Tags in Reducing Belief in False Stories on Social Media

Katherine Clayton, Spencer Blair, Jonathan Busam, Samuel Forstner, & al.
Political Behavior
December 15, 2020
10.1007/s11109-019-09533-0

Timing matters when correcting fake news

Nadia M. Brashier, Gordon Pennycook, A. Berinsky, David G. Rand
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
January 25, 2021
10.1073/pnas.2020043118

Effects of Credibility Indicators on Social Media News Sharing Intent

Waheeb Yaqub, Otari Kakhidze, Morgan L. Brockman, N. Memon, & al.
Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
April 21, 2020
10.1145/3313831.3376213

The Implied Truth Effect: Attaching Warnings to a Subset of Fake News Headlines Increases Perceived Accuracy of Headlines Without Warnings

Gordon Pennycook, Adam Bear, Evan T. Collins, David G. Rand
Management Sciences
February 21, 2020
10.2139/ssrn.3035384

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Further reading

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