Google is set to initiate a new campaign in Germany to fight misinformation and make people more resilient to the adverse effect of online misinformation by releasing a series of short videos educating the public on the techniques familiar to most online misinformation before they encounter them. 

The short videos will be released as advertisements on platforms like Facebook, YouTube, or TikTok in Germany. 

This new approach is called ‘prebunking’. It involves teaching people how to spot online misinformation before they encounter them. 

The techniques common to most online misinformation include fear-mongering, scapegoating, false comparisons, exaggeration, and missing context.

Beth Goldberg, head of research and development at Jigsaw, an incubator division of Google that studies emerging social challenges, stated that the campaign is a novel and exciting solution.

“Using ads as a vehicle to counter a disinformation technique is pretty novel. And we’re excited about the results,” Beth Goldberg said. 

Alex Mahadevan, director of MediaWise, a media literacy initiative of the Poynter Institute, welcomed the google initiative as good news and an efficient way to combat misinformation. 

“This is a good news story in what has essentially been a bad news business when it comes to misinformation,” Mr Mahadevan said. 

He added that the strategy is a “pretty efficient way to address misinformation at scale because you can reach a lot of people while at the same time address a wide range of misinformation.”

The Poynter Institute has already incorporated prebunking into its programmes in Brazil, Spain, France, and the US.

The Associated Press reported that Meta has also incorporated prebunking into its many media literacy and anti-misinformation campaigns in recent years. 

According to VOA, Google would announce its new German campaign ahead of next week’s Munich Security Conference. 

Sander Van der Linden, a University of Cambridge professor considered an expert in prebunking theory, stated that misinformation is like a virus that spreads when unchecked. 

“You can think of misinformation as a virus. It spreads. It lingers. It can make people act in certain ways,” Van der Linden told AP. “Some people develop symptoms. Some do not. So, if it spreads and acts like a virus, then maybe we can figure out how to inoculate people.”