COVID-19: Being alone together: developing fake news immunity
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Liverpool
Department Name: Communication and Media
Abstract
This project is framed in the area of "crisis informatics", the study of how (mis)information
about COVID-19 is generated and flows over media platforms. The main goal is that of
reverse-engineering the manipulation of information providing citizens with the means to act
as fact checkers. We believe that fostering global digital activism constitutes a necessary
means to fight the current info-pandemic. The majority of fact-checking and myth-busting
sites (e.g. EUvsDisinfo, https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-
2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters) counter false narratives and news that have already
become viral, unable to prevent their spread. Furthermore, AI techniques
(http://www.fakenewschallenge.org) are currently not accurate enough to replace humans
in generalised fact-checking. This is especially the case when the news does not contain
fabricated information (disinformation), but it is framed in such a way that true evidence is
used to draw false generalizations and evaluations (Wardle 2019), resulting in semi-fake
news.
Leveraging NLP techniques for topic modelling and frame analysis (Das et al. 2010) we will
trace the topics and frames which characterize semi-fake COVID-19 news using FullFact
(https://fullfact.org/) and the Coronavirus debunking archive built by First Draft
(https://firstdraftnews.org/long-form-article/coronavirus-resources-for-reporters/) as
benchmarks. We will identify the fallacious reasonings in the sample and use the results to
compile a set of guidelines about how to detect semi-fake COVID-19 news. These principles
will be operationalised in a digital platform with a chatbot for training citizens to spot
misinformation. Citizens who have been trained will have access to the Fake News Immunity
platform, working together with experts in the common effort of flagging semi-fake news.
about COVID-19 is generated and flows over media platforms. The main goal is that of
reverse-engineering the manipulation of information providing citizens with the means to act
as fact checkers. We believe that fostering global digital activism constitutes a necessary
means to fight the current info-pandemic. The majority of fact-checking and myth-busting
sites (e.g. EUvsDisinfo, https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-
2019/advice-for-public/myth-busters) counter false narratives and news that have already
become viral, unable to prevent their spread. Furthermore, AI techniques
(http://www.fakenewschallenge.org) are currently not accurate enough to replace humans
in generalised fact-checking. This is especially the case when the news does not contain
fabricated information (disinformation), but it is framed in such a way that true evidence is
used to draw false generalizations and evaluations (Wardle 2019), resulting in semi-fake
news.
Leveraging NLP techniques for topic modelling and frame analysis (Das et al. 2010) we will
trace the topics and frames which characterize semi-fake COVID-19 news using FullFact
(https://fullfact.org/) and the Coronavirus debunking archive built by First Draft
(https://firstdraftnews.org/long-form-article/coronavirus-resources-for-reporters/) as
benchmarks. We will identify the fallacious reasonings in the sample and use the results to
compile a set of guidelines about how to detect semi-fake COVID-19 news. These principles
will be operationalised in a digital platform with a chatbot for training citizens to spot
misinformation. Citizens who have been trained will have access to the Fake News Immunity
platform, working together with experts in the common effort of flagging semi-fake news.
Publications
Palmieri R
(2020)
Trust-Repair Strategies in Crisis Rhetorical (Sub-)Arenas: An Argumentative Perspective
in International Journal of Strategic Communication
Musi, E.
(2022)
Developing fake news immunity: fallacies as misinformation triggers during the pandemic.
in Online Journal of Communication and Media Technologies. (accepted pending major revisions).
Musi E.
(2022)
The Pandemic of Argumentation
Musi E.
(2021)
OUTSMARTING THE NEXT PANDEMIC: WHAT COVID-19 CAN TEACH US
Musi E
(2022)
From fallacies to semi-fake news: improving the identification of misinformation triggers across digital media
in Discourse and Society
Musi E
(2022)
From fallacies to semi-fake news: Improving the identification of misinformation triggers across digital media
in Discourse & Society
Foulis, M
(2021)
Online Handbook of Argumentation for AI
in Computational Approaches to Fallacy Detection in Natural Language Arguments
Elinor Carmi
(2021)
"How to empower citizens to fight fake news during Covid-19".
Carmi Elinor
(2020)
The Rule of Truth: How fallacies can help stem the COVID-19 infodemic
Alhindi, Tariq
(2022)
Multitask Instruction-based Prompting for Fallacy Recognition
| Title | Booklet |
| Description | Booklet of recommendations to identify misinformation |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | This booklet will be published in an online exhibition directed by the Treorchy Library in the frame of the Engaging libraries project |
| Description | Through this award we have i) carried out a multi-level analysis of 1135 fact-checked news about COVID-19 ii) identified a set of 10 key misinformation triggers to recognise misinformation about COVID-19 iii) built two chatbots to interactively teach citizens and journalists how to identify misinformation |
| Exploitation Route | They can inform the creation of automatic fact-checkers able to identify misinformation; they can be leveraged to improve the news making process as well as public communications in crisis scenarios |
| Sectors | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Description | --- the chatbot is being used as part of training programmes to fight the infodemic at the level of local and regional councils and institutions, news agencies and global organisations |
| First Year Of Impact | 2020 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Government, Democracy and Justice |
| Impact Types | Societal,Policy & public services |
| Description | Citation in the |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Citation in systematic reviews |
| Impact | Provide resources to fight the infodemic |
| URL | https://mailchi.mp/e1d8a96996a1/infodemic-management-news-flash-issue-10873618 |
| Description | workshop at doctoral school to teach most cutting edge methdologies for fact-checking |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | train Ph.D students in building effective fact-checking |
| Description | workshop with PHE communication team |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | provide PHE communication teams with the tools, resources and analytics to counter and prevent infodemic about mass testing and vaccine |
| Description | workshop with postgraduate students to train them in fact-checking |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Increased awareness and skills in identifying misinformation at scale and avoid mis behaviors about COVID-19. |
| Description | Leveraging Argument technology for Impartial Factchecking |
| Amount | £33,596,329 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2023 |
| End | 08/2024 |
| Description | Serapis Lot 6 U33 |
| Amount | £234,668 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 012217 - 122858V |
| Organisation | Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (DSTL) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2021 |
| End | 03/2022 |
| Description | undergraduate abd postgraduate research schemes |
| Amount | £2,100 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Liverpool |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2020 |
| End | 08/2021 |
| Description | Collaboration with Sefton Public Health |
| Organisation | Public Health England |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | --- Inform communication gatekeepers about identified triggers and trend in misinformation spread --- make our chatbot available for training purposes |
| Collaborator Contribution | Inform the team about local communication practices |
| Impact | Knowledge transfer workshop to inform local communication gatekeepers about the interim results of our project |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Collaboration with the Engaging Libraries program - Carnegie Trust (Treorchy Library) |
| Organisation | Carnegie Trust |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | 1. Co-creating a booklet with the library service on fake news with useful advice, links and resources. 2. Assist with the development of an online exhibition with our chatbot 3. Assist atrs facilitator with the development of short films/scenarios about the subject of fake news. 4. Provide guest lectures on the dis/misinformation topic. |
| Collaborator Contribution | our chatbot has been integrated this into the library website and made part of the online exhibition. |
| Impact | Fake News Immunity booklet: https://fakenewsimmunity.liverpool.ac.uk/resources/ |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Description | Synergy with the NIHR HPRUEZI COVID - Generating actionable evidence for containing the spread of misinformation (PI - Mark Green) - 19 Strategic Research Call - |
| Organisation | University of Liverpool |
| Department | Department of Geography and Planning |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | provide data containing misinformation sources |
| Collaborator Contribution | provide a complete dataset of Tweets related to misinformation |
| Impact | publication: Mark Green1, Elena Musi2, Francisco Rowe1, Darren Charles3, Frances Darlington Pollock1, Chris Kypridemos4, Andrew Morse1, Patricia Rossini2, John Tulloch5,6, Andrew Davies1, Emily Dearden6,7, Henry Maheswaran4, Alex Singleton1, Roberto Vivancos5,6, Sally Sheard4. Identifying how the spread of misinformation reacts to the announcement of the UK national lockdown: An interrupted time-series study. Submitted to Big Data and Society |
| Start Year | 2020 |
| Title | Fake News Immunity Chatbot |
| Description | multi-agent public access platform that interactively teaches users how to factcheck news about COVID-19 |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Open Source License? | Yes |
| Impact | The chatbot has been added to the myliverpool app resource (https://welcome.liverpool.ac.uk/) to train students in becoming factcheckers. |
| URL | http://fni.arg.tech/ |
| Title | Vaccinating News chatbot |
| Description | interactive multi-agent chatbot to teach communication gatekeeepers how to avoid creating and spreading misleading news. |
| Type Of Technology | Webtool/Application |
| Year Produced | 2021 |
| Impact | The chatbot has been used by a variety of local and international communication gatekeepers |
| URL | http://fni.arg.tech/?chatbot_type=vaccine |
| Description | 21 April 2021 - Dr. Elena Musi talked at the North West Behavioural Sciences Hub webinar on "Making sense of behavioural insights: Using behavioural science to address vaccine hesitancy" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Knowledge transfer of research resukts to practitioners |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Building data literacy with the teaching profession at global scale |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Presentation of our research results to educational practitioners |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Dr. Elena Musi and Dr. Elinor Carmi gave several training session at the World Health Organisation's 2nd training in infodemic management week. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | presentation of our research results and tools to enhance media literacy |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| Description | Fake News Immunity chatbot presentation at the Mozilla festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | In this workshop we provide citizens with tools to navigate mis-/dis-information in a critical way and improve their decision making processes during the pandemic and beyond. As part of our ESRC funded project "Being Alone Together: Developing Fake News Immunity" we developed a multi-player chatbot... |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://schedule.mozillafestival.org/schedule |
| Description | Participation to the UK Parliament knowledge exchange |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | The UK Parliament Knowledge Exchange has integrated Dr. Elinor Carmi's insights feeding into their piece on "Life beyond COVID-19: What are experts concerned about?" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://post.parliament.uk/life-beyond-covid-19-what-are-experts-concerned-about/ |
| Description | Pindex video |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | A youtube video produced by Pindex and narrated by Stephen Fry discussing the need for argument technology and the work of the Centre, 02 October 2021 (250,000 views) |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cN3rZ5h3LE&ab_channel=Pindex |
| Description | Press release to announce the launch of the Fake News Immunity Chatbot |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Through a press release announcing the launch of our chatbot we have been featured by more than 10 local and international news media outlets. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://fakenewsimmunity.liverpool.ac.uk/media-events |
| Description | invited talk to the "Mental Helath Monday podcast) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Talk explaining to the podcast audience why we are persuaded by misinformation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://audioboom.com/posts/7691265-ep-174-why-conspiracy-theories-thrive-and-how-to-cope-with-them |