Microsoft Reports Progress with Project to Fight Online Misinformation

2023-06-18

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  • American technology company Microsoft is reporting progress with a program that aims to fight misinformation online.
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  • Leaders of the project recently spoke to The Associated Press about the effort.
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  • Microsoft teamed up with the nonprofit Trust Project last year to suggest tools to help users find trustworthy news sources.
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  • The Trust Project is a group of linked news organizations.
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  • Microsoft and the Trust Project created advertisements that direct internet users to a list of eight "trust indicators" that can be used to judge websites.
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  • One indicator is whether opinion writing is clearly identified.
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  • Others provide guidelines for recognizing good reporting methods, identifying bias and finding quality news sources.
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  • Microsoft said most of the people who saw their indicators said the guidelines improved their ability to judge which online news sources were trustworthy and which ones contained misinformation.
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  • "This was a bit of an experiment for us," said Ginny Badanes, director of Microsoft's Democracy Forward Initiative.
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  • The group is part of Microsoft's efforts to get involved in online reporting and democracy.
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  • Badanes told The Associated Press, "The world is changing very quickly and people need tools to equip themselves."
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  • Services like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube have been blamed for fueling political divisions and reducing trust in democratic systems.
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  • There are already many existing efforts that say they are aimed at fighting online misinformation.
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  • These include fact-checking services.
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  • These services seek to examine news stories gaining wide public attention and to explain whether they are true or not.
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  • But these services require a lot of research and workers, are not seen by many people, and are not likely to persuade people already distrustful of the media.
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  • Another way to fight online misinformation is through the moderation efforts of technology companies themselves.
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  • But these efforts have failed to satisfy many critics of social media services.
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  • And legislative efforts to force technology companies to do more policing themselves have been slow to progress.
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  • But some measures designed to increase critical thinking skills and media literacy have shown success.
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  • These are aimed at helping people learn how to identify misinformation themselves.
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  • Last year, Google launched a series of videos on YouTube in Eastern Europe that were designed to teach people how misinformation works.
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  • That campaign was recently expanded to Germany.
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  • Sally Lehrman is a reporter and chief executive at the Trust Project.
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  • She told the AP there are important signs to look for when seeking trustworthy news organizations.
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  • These organizations will identify their sources, present diverse voices and require their workers to observe rules aimed at producing high quality reporting.
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  • In the experiment, users of Microsoft products and systems, including email, were shown ads.
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  • Over a six-month period, the ads led to twice as many people visiting the project's site.
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  • About 62 percent of those who visited the site said it helped them feel more confident about judging online information.
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  • Lehrman said she was pleased by the results of the indicator guidelines.
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  • She noted that short internet ads are a low-cost, easy answer compared to complex legislative efforts or policing attempts by tech companies themselves.
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  • Lehrman said the need for media literacy programs is increasingly needed as new artificial intelligence methods make misinformation easier than ever to create and spread.
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  • Lehrman said the research proves that many people will read ads that offer help in dealing with online misinformation.
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  • But she added that the ads must be effective in getting people's attention.
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  • "Are we asking people to eat their broccoli? I always reject that because I think broccoli is delicious," she said.
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  • "But we have to make it delicious."
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  • I'm Bryan Lynn.