Google to expand its targeting of false claims in Europe

Short online videos use ‘prebunking’ technique

WASHINGTON – After seeing promising results in Eastern Europe, Google will initiate a new campaign in Germany that aims to make people more resilient to the corrosive effects of online misinformation.

The tech giant plans to release a series of short videos highlighting the techniques common to many misleading claims. The videos will appear as advertisements on platforms like Facebook, Youtube or Tiktok in Germany. A similar campaign in India is also in the works.

It’s an approach called prebunking, which involves teaching people how to spot false claims before they encounter them. The strategy is gaining support among researchers and tech companies.

“There’s a real appetite for solutions,” said Beth Goldberg, head of research and development at Jigsaw, an incubator division of Google that studies emerging social challenges. “Using ads as a vehicle to counter a disinformation technique is pretty novel. And we’re excited about the results.”

While belief in falsehoods and conspiracy theories isn’t new, the speed and reach of the internet has given them a heightened power. When catalyzed by algorithms, misleading claims can discourage people from getting vaccines, spread authoritarian propaganda, foment distrust in democratic institutions and spur violence.

It’s a challenge with few easy solutions. Journalistic fact checks are effective, but they’re labor intensive, aren’t read by everyone, and won’t convince those already distrustful of traditional journalism. Content moderation by tech companies is another response, but it only drives misinformation elsewhere, while prompting cries of censorship and bias.

Prebunking videos, by contrast, are relatively cheap and easy to produce and can be seen by millions when placed on popular platforms. They also avoid the political challenge altogether by focusing not on the topics of false claims, which are often cultural lightning rods, but on the techniques that make viral misinformation so infectious.

Those techniques include fearmongering, scapegoating, false comparisons, exaggeration and missing context.

Last fall, Google launched the largest test of the theory so far with a prebunking video campaign in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The videos dissected different techniques seen in false claims about Ukrainian refugees. Many of those claims relied

Quantasy & Associates, to perform marketing services. Root paid Quantasy more than $13 million, the company said, with the money spent on marketing at Barstool Sports, ESPN and iheart.

There’s no indication any of the money was spent with those companies on Root’s behalf.

Silver then told Campbell to transfer more than $9.4 million of that money to another company called Collateral Damage, which is owned and operated by Silver, the insurer said. Silver never told Root of the existence of Collateral, the company said.

Once the money was transferred to Collateral Damage, Silver used the funds to buy high-end homes in Miami, Florida and Venice, California in the name of another of his companies, called Eclipse Home Design, between April and August 2022 for more than $10 million, according to the lawsuit. Those purchases were funded, at least in part,

by the money Quantasy sent to Collateral Damage.

“Throughout 2022, Silver, Campbell and several other co-conspirators engaged in a brazen and sophisticated scheme to defraud Root of at least $9.4 million,” the lawsuit said.

Root believes that Silver and Campbell had worked together before Silver came to Root.

Silver could not be reached for comment. The lawsuit says he lives in California and Florida.

Other defendants include Campbell, Paige Lynette Mcdaniel, Silver’s sister, along with Collateral Damage, Eclipse and Quantasy.

The lawsuit laid out a scheme in which Silver and the others defrauded Root through a series of false transactions claiming that Collateral Damage had provided services to Root when it had not. The scheme included submitting false invoices and other paperwork that ultimately led to Root paying the money.

The lawsuit follows a warning that Root issued in December that it had started an investigation into the missing money, notifying the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission and state regulators of what had happened.

The company said it could not predict what action, if any, may be taken in connection with the investigation.

Root said it will pursue the recovery of the money through all legally available means and cooperate with law enforcement as appropriate. mawilliams@dispatch.com @Bizmarkwilliams