YouTube is testing out a program meant to “inoculate” users against misinformation through video ads in Poland, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, according to Protocol.
Jigsaw, a a research group within YouTube’s parent company, Google, developed the program as part of a yearslong research project with the goal of making people immune to disinformation on social media, Protocol reported. The program is now being used to warn residents of countries receiving an influx of Ukrainian refugees about anti-immigrant tropes in a massive ad campaign.
The program expects to get 55 million impressions, roughly the total combined population of the three countries, on social media platforms including YouTube over the course of a month, according to Protocol. It will focus on informing viewers about negative tropes they may see about immigrants so that they’ll be skeptical of those ideas in the future and refrain from sharing them.
Rather than disputing particular claims, the videos explain common “manipulation” techniques like emotionally manipulative content, scapegoating and false dichotomies in the hope that users will question disinformation in the future, according to Protocol.
April 2nd is International Fact Checking Day and we’re committed to help you spot misinformation online.
Google offers a range of tools and tips to help you make sense of information online ↓ pic.twitter.com/0hgkH3ShyD
— Google (@Google) March 31, 2022
“These suppression efforts aren’t aimed at making people better informed. They are focused on the establishment’s control of the narrative,” John Robb, censorship researcher and Global Guerillas publisher, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “They are far more focused on controlling the interpretation of facts than getting the facts right. To them, alternative interpretations are the enemy, often due to some potential harm, even if they are proven to be right.” (RELATED: Google Triggers Criminal Investigation After Dad Takes Photos Of His Toddler, Naked, For Doctor)
Jigsaw researchers developed the program as part of a broader push to “inoculate” internet users against disinformation, since the amount of information online is so vast that it’s impossible to effectively fact-check every piece of disinformation, according to Protocol.
Jon Schweppe, director of policy and government affairs at the American Principles Project, said the strategy may be a response to the ineffectiveness of Google and YouTube’s more transparent censorship efforts like misinformation flags and content removal. Google has the power to manipulate people through curation of search results and other discrete methods in an effort to ideologically influence the American electorate, he said.
“The problem is that when you give the power to police speech to powerful multinational corporations, they’re obviously going to use their censorship powers to further their own interests. They’re not really looking out for what’s true and whats false,” he told the DCNF. “This is all part of an effort by our silicon valley overlords to really control the way that we think, and thats been a goal that’s been really pervasive throughout our culture for years now.”
A Jigsaw spokeswoman told the DCNF there are no current plans for expanding the program beyond the three countries it’s currently being used in, but that the organization is continuing to work with the University of Cambridge to study “prebunking.”
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