'Debunk-It-Yourself': Health Professionals' Strategies for Responding to Misinformation on TikTok

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Sharevski, Filipo, Loop, Jennifer Vander, Devine, Amy, Jachim, Peter, Das, Sanchari
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Sharevski, Filipo
Loop, Jennifer Vander
Devine, Amy
Jachim, Peter
Das, Sanchari
author_facet Sharevski, Filipo
Loop, Jennifer Vander
Devine, Amy
Jachim, Peter
Das, Sanchari
contents Misinformation is "sticky" in nature, requiring a considerable effort to undo its influence. One such effort is debunking or exposing the falsity of information. As an abundance of misinformation is on social media, platforms do bear some debunking responsibility in order to preserve their trustworthiness as information providers. A subject of interpretation, platforms poorly meet this responsibility and allow dangerous health misinformation to influence many of their users. This open route to harm did not sit well with health professional users, who recently decided to take the debunking into their own hands. To study this individual debunking effort - which we call 'Debunk-It-Yourself (DIY)' - we conducted an exploratory survey n=14 health professionals who wage a misinformation counter-influence campaign through videos on TikTok. We focused on two topics, nutrition and mental health, which are the ones most often subjected to misinformation on the platform. Our thematic analysis reveals that the counterinfluence follows a common process of initiation, selection, creation, and "stitching" or duetting a debunking video with a misinformation video. The 'Debunk-It-Yourself' effort was underpinned by three unique aspects: (i) it targets trending misinformation claims perceived to be of direct harm to people's health; (ii) it offers a symmetric response to the misinformation; and (iii) it is strictly based on scientific evidence and claimed clinical experience. Contrasting the 'Debunk-It-Yourself' effort with the one TikTok and other platforms (reluctantly) put in moderation, we offer recommendations for a structured response against the misinformation's influence by the users themselves.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2412_04999
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle 'Debunk-It-Yourself': Health Professionals' Strategies for Responding to Misinformation on TikTok
Sharevski, Filipo
Loop, Jennifer Vander
Devine, Amy
Jachim, Peter
Das, Sanchari
Cryptography and Security
Computers and Society
Human-Computer Interaction
Social and Information Networks
Misinformation is "sticky" in nature, requiring a considerable effort to undo its influence. One such effort is debunking or exposing the falsity of information. As an abundance of misinformation is on social media, platforms do bear some debunking responsibility in order to preserve their trustworthiness as information providers. A subject of interpretation, platforms poorly meet this responsibility and allow dangerous health misinformation to influence many of their users. This open route to harm did not sit well with health professional users, who recently decided to take the debunking into their own hands. To study this individual debunking effort - which we call 'Debunk-It-Yourself (DIY)' - we conducted an exploratory survey n=14 health professionals who wage a misinformation counter-influence campaign through videos on TikTok. We focused on two topics, nutrition and mental health, which are the ones most often subjected to misinformation on the platform. Our thematic analysis reveals that the counterinfluence follows a common process of initiation, selection, creation, and "stitching" or duetting a debunking video with a misinformation video. The 'Debunk-It-Yourself' effort was underpinned by three unique aspects: (i) it targets trending misinformation claims perceived to be of direct harm to people's health; (ii) it offers a symmetric response to the misinformation; and (iii) it is strictly based on scientific evidence and claimed clinical experience. Contrasting the 'Debunk-It-Yourself' effort with the one TikTok and other platforms (reluctantly) put in moderation, we offer recommendations for a structured response against the misinformation's influence by the users themselves.
title 'Debunk-It-Yourself': Health Professionals' Strategies for Responding to Misinformation on TikTok
topic Cryptography and Security
Computers and Society
Human-Computer Interaction
Social and Information Networks
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2412.04999