Amongst the winners of Facebook’s Foundation Integrity Research: Misinformation and Polarization request for proposals are Pakistani researchers Ayesha Ali, Agha Ali Raza and Ihsan Ayyub Qazi from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).
Both polarization and misinformation are problems that Facebook faces. Through the use of the social media platform, people are learning more about the world in a short span of time. Hence, when there is misinformation or fake news, the spreading of the news is uncontrollable and puts the whole of society at a disadvantage.
Because of this, Facebook had launched a request for proposals to deal with both polarization and misinformation. “Our goal is to support independent research that will contribute to the understanding of these phenomena and, in the long term, help us improve our policies, interventions, and tooling,” said Alex Leavitt, Senior Researcher at Facebook.
Making Pakistan proud, Ayesha Ali, Agha Ali Raza and Ihsan Ayyub Qazi were amongst those who won. Their research sets out to measure the role of prior beliefs and analytical reasoning, and how this impacts the beliefs of internet users, as well as to design an educational intervention that uses influential public figures to spread awareness about misinformation in order to reduce polarization, among other goals.
The team release their statement, saying:
“We are thrilled to have our research been awarded the grant by Facebook which would serve as a stepping stone for us to take our project forward. Through our research, we aim to understand how non-textual misinformation (e.g. deepfakes) is perceived by internet users with low digital literacy, and the role of pre-conceived notions and analytical reasoning in shaping the beliefs of such users. We are hopeful that by the completion of this project, we will be able to make a substantial contribution towards combating the circulation of false and unverified information on the internet.”
Congratulations to Ayesha Ali, Agha Ali Raza and Ihsan Ayyub Qazi. These Pakistani researchers have made their country proud by being amongst the awardees of the Facebook Misinformation research proposals. We look forward to your work and contribution to the society.
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