#FactCheck - "Viral Video Misleadingly Claims Surrender to Indian Army, Actually Shows Bangladesh Army”

Introduction 

Prebunking is a technique that shifts the focus from directly challenging falsehoods or telling people what they need to believe to understanding how people are manipulated and misled online to begin with. It is a growing field of research that aims to help people resist persuasion by misinformation. Prebunking, or "attitudinal inoculation," is a way to teach people to spot and resist manipulative messages before they happen.  The crux of the approach is rooted in taking a step backwards and nipping the problem in the bud by deepening our understanding of it, instead of designing redressal mechanisms to tackle it after the fact. It has been proven effective in helping a wide range of people build resilience to misleading information.

Prebunking is a psychological strategy for countering the effect of misinformation with the goal of assisting individuals in identifying and resisting deceptive content, hence increasing resilience against future misinformation. Online manipulation is a complex issue, and multiple approaches are needed to curb its worst effects. Prebunking provides an opportunity to get ahead of online manipulation, providing a layer of protection before individuals encounter malicious content. Prebunking aids individuals in discerning and refuting misleading arguments, thus enabling them to resist a variety of online manipulations. 

Prebunking builds mental defenses for misinformation by providing warnings and counterarguments before people encounter malicious content. Inoculating people against false or misleading information is a powerful and effective method for building trust and understanding along with a personal capacity for discernment and fact-checking. Prebunking teaches people how to separate facts from myths by teaching them the importance of thinking in terms of ‘how you know what you know’ and consensus-building. Prebunking uses examples and case studies to explain the types and risks of misinformation so that individuals can apply these learnings to reject false claims and manipulation in the future as well. 

How Prebunking Helps Individuals Spot Manipulative Messages

Prebunking helps individuals identify manipulative messages by providing them with the necessary tools and knowledge to recognize common techniques used to spread misinformation. Successful prebunking strategies include;

1. Warnings;
2. Preemptive Refutation: It explains the narrative/technique and how particular information is manipulative in structure. The Inoculation treatment messages typically include 2-3 counterarguments and their refutations. An effective rebuttal provides the viewer with skills to fight any erroneous or misleading information they may encounter in the future.
3. Micro-dosing: A weakened or practical example of misinformation that is innocuous. 

All these alert individuals to potential manipulation attempts. Prebunking also offers weakened examples of misinformation, allowing individuals to practice identifying deceptive content. It activates mental defenses, preparing individuals to resist persuasion attempts. Misinformation can exploit cognitive biases: people tend to put a lot of faith in things they’ve heard repeatedly - a fact that malicious actors manipulate by flooding the Internet with their claims to help legitimise them by creating familiarity. The ‘prebunking’ technique helps to create resilience against misinformation and protects our minds from the harmful effects of misinformation. 

Prebunking essentially helps people control the information they consume by teaching them how to discern between accurate and deceptive content. It enables one to develop critical thinking skills, evaluate sources adequately and identify red flags. By incorporating these components and strategies, prebunking enhances the ability to spot manipulative messages, resist deceptive narratives, and make informed decisions when navigating the very dynamic and complex information landscape online.

CyberPeace Policy Recommendations

• Preventing and fighting misinformation necessitates joint efforts between different stakeholders. The government and policymakers should sponsor prebunking initiatives and information literacy programmes to counter misinformation and adopt systematic approaches. Regulatory frameworks should encourage accountability in the dissemination of online information on various platforms. Collaboration with educational institutions, technological companies and civil society organisations can assist in the implementation of prebunking techniques in a variety of areas.
• Higher educational institutions should support prebunking and media literacy and offer professional development opportunities for educators, and scholars by working with academics and professionals on the subject of misinformation by producing research studies on the grey areas and challenges associated with misinformation.
• Technological companies and social media platforms should improve algorithm transparency, create user-friendly tools and resources, and work with fact-checking organisations to incorporate fact-check labels and tools.
• Civil society organisations and NGOs should promote digital literacy campaigns to spread awareness on misinformation and teach prebunking strategies and critical information evaluation. Training programmes should be available to help people recognise and resist deceptive information using prebunking tactics. Advocacy efforts should support legislation or guidelines that support and encourage prebunking efforts and promote media literacy as a basic skill in the digital landscape. 
• Media outlets and journalists including print & social media should follow high journalistic standards and engage in fact-checking activities to ensure information accuracy before release. Collaboration with prebunking professionals, cyber security experts, researchers and advocacy analysts can result in instructional content and initiatives that promote media literacy, prebunking strategies and misinformation awareness.

Final Words

The World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report 2024 identifies misinformation and disinformation as the top most significant risks for the next two years. Misinformation and disinformation are rampant in today’s digital-first reality, and the ever-growing popularity of social media is only going to see the challenges compound further. It is absolutely imperative for all netizens and stakeholders  to adopt proactive approaches to counter the growing problem of misinformation. Prebunking is a powerful problem-solving tool in this regard because it aims at ‘protection through prevention’ instead of limiting the strategy to harm reduction and redressal.  We can draw parallels with the concept of vaccination or inoculation, reducing the probability of a misinformation infection. Prebunking exposes us to a weakened form of misinformation and provides ways to identify it, reducing the chance false information takes root in our psyches.

The most compelling attribute of this approach is that the focus is not only on preventing damage but also creating widespread ownership and citizen participation in the problem-solving process. Every empowered individual creates an additional layer of protection against the scourge of misinformation, not only making safer choices for themselves but also lowering the risk of spreading false claims to others.  

References

• [1] https://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_The_Global_Risks_Report_2024.pdf
• [2] https://prebunking.withgoogle.com/docs/A_Practical_Guide_to_Prebunking_Misinformation.pdf
• [3] https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/viewFile/17634/3565

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Introduction

In the era of digitalisation, social media has become an essential part of our lives, with people spending a lot of time updating every moment of their lives on these platforms. Social media networks such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and YouTube have emerged as significant sources of Information. However, the proliferation of misinformation is alarming since misinformation can have grave consequences for individuals, organisations, and society as a whole. Misinformation can spread rapidly via social media, leaving a higher impact on larger audiences. Bad actors can exploit algorithms for their benefit or some other agenda, using tactics such as clickbait headlines, emotionally charged language, and manipulated algorithms to increase false information.

Impact 

The impact of misinformation on our lives is devastating, affecting individuals, communities, and society as a whole. False or misleading health information can have serious consequences, such as believing in unproven remedies or misinformation about some vaccines can cause serious illness, disability, or even death. Any misinformation related to any financial scheme or investment can lead to false or poor financial decisions that could lead to bankruptcy and loss of long-term savings.

In a democratic nation, misinformation plays a vital role in forming a political opinion, and the misinformation spread on social media during elections can affect voter behaviour, damage trust, and may cause political instability.

Mitigating strategies

The best way to minimise or stop the spreading of misinformation requires a multi-faceted approach. These strategies include promoting media literacy with critical thinking, verifying information before sharing, holding social media platforms accountable, regulating misinformation, supporting critical research, and fostering healthy means of communication to build a resilient society.

To put an end to the cycle of misinformation and move towards a better future, we must create plans to combat the spread of false information. This will require coordinated actions from individuals, communities, tech companies, and institutions to promote a culture of information accuracy and responsible behaviour.

The widespread spread of false information on social media platforms presents serious problems for people, groups, and society as a whole. It becomes clear that battling false information necessitates a thorough and multifaceted strategy as we go deeper into comprehending the nuances of this problem.

Encouraging consumers to develop media literacy and critical thinking abilities is essential to preventing the spread of false information. Being educated is essential for equipping people to distinguish between reliable sources and false information. Giving individuals the skills to assess information critically will enable them to choose the content they share and consume with knowledge. Public awareness campaigns should be used to promote and include initiatives that aim to improve media literacy in school curriculum.

Ways to Stop Misinformation

As we have seen, misinformation can cause serious implications; the best way to minimise or stop the spreading of misinformation requires a multifaceted approach; here are some strategies to combat misinformation.

• Promote Media Literacy with Critical Thinking: Educate individuals about how to critically evaluate information, fact check, and recognise common tactics used to spread misinformation, the users must use their critical thinking before forming any opinion or perspective and sharing the content.
• Verify Information: we must encourage people to verify the information before sharing, especially if it seems sensational or controversial, and encourage the consumption of news or any information from a reputable source of news that follows ethical journalistic standards.
• Accountability: Advocate for social media networks' openness and responsibility in the fight against misinformation. Encourage platforms to put in place procedures to detect and delete fraudulent content while boosting credible sources.
• Regulate Misinformation: Looking at the current situation, it is important to advocate for policies and regulations that address the spread of misinformation while safeguarding freedom of expression. Transparency in online communication by identifying the source of information and disclosing any conflict of interest.
• Support Critical Research: Invest in research and study on the sources, impacts, and remedies to misinformation. Support collaborative initiatives by social scientists, psychologists, journalists, and technology to create evidence-based techniques for countering misinformation. 

Conclusion

To prevent the cycle of misinformation and move towards responsible use of the Internet, we must create strategies to combat the spread of false information. This will require coordinated actions from individuals, communities, tech companies, and institutions to promote a culture of information accuracy and responsible behaviour.

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Executive Summary:

The claim of a video of  US President Joe Biden dozing off during a television interview is digitally manipulated . The original video is from a 2011 incident involving actor and singer Harry Belafonte. He seems to fall asleep during a live satellite interview with KBAK – KBFX - Eyewitness News. Upon thorough analysis of keyframes from the viral video, it reveals that US President Joe Biden’s image was altered in Harry Belafonte's video. This confirms that the viral video is manipulated and does not show an actual event involving President Biden.

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Claims:

A video shows US President Joe Biden dozing off during a television interview while the anchor tries to wake him up.

Fact Check:

Upon receiving the posts, we watched the video then divided the video into keyframes using the inVid tool, and reverse-searched one of the frames from the video.

We found another video uploaded on Oct 18, 2011 by the official channel of KBAK - KBFX - Eye Witness News. The title of the video reads, “Official Station Video: Is Harry Belafonte asleep during live TV interview?”  

The video looks similar to the recent viral one, the TV anchor could be heard saying the same thing as in the viral video. Taking a cue from this we also did some keyword searches to find any credible sources. We found a news article posted by Yahoo Entertainment of the same video uploaded by KBAK - KBFX - Eyewitness News.

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Upon thorough investigation from reverse image search and keyword search reveals that the recent viral video of US  President Joe Biden dozing off during a TV interview is digitally altered to misrepresent the context. The original video dated back to 2011, where American Singer and actor Harry Belafonte was the actual person in the TV interview but not US  President Joe Biden.

Hence, the claim made in the viral video is false and misleading.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the viral video claiming to show US President Joe Biden dozing off during a television interview is digitally manipulated and inauthentic. The video is originally from a 2011 incident involving American singer and actor Harry Belafonte. It has been altered to falsely show US President Joe Biden. It is a reminder to verify the authenticity of online content before accepting or sharing it as truth.

• Claim:  A viral video shows in a television interview US President Joe Biden dozing off  while the anchor tries to wake him up.
• Claimed on: X (Formerly known as Twitter)
• Fact Check: Fake & Misleading