Project to counter misinformation receives Meta Foundational Integrity Research funding
Author Kathy Nickels
Date 30 March 2023
ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S) researcher Dr Silvia Montaña-Niño and her colleagues have been awarded funding from Meta’s Foundational Integrity Research for their comparative study which seeks to counter misinformation in the Southern Hemisphere.
Meta’s Foundational Integrity Research request for proposals (RFP) was launched in September 2022 and attracted 503 proposals from 349 universities and institutions around the world.
A total of $1,000,000 USD funding was awarded to research that would enrich the understanding of challenges related to integrity issues on social media and social technology platforms.
The project Countering misinformation in the Southern Hemisphere: A comparative study to be will be led by Dr Michelle Riedlinger (QUT) with colleagues Dr Silvia Montaña-Niño (Melbourne), Dr Marina Joubert (Stellenbosch University), and Assoc. Prof Víctor García-Perdomo (Universidad de La Sabana) was one of 11 projects to receive the funding.
Dr Michelle Riedlinger from the School of Communication at QUT is leading the project.
“We have an amazing team of researchers from Australia, Latin America and Africa involved in this project and we’re keen to get started,” says Dr Riedlinger.
The project will investigate what fact checkers are doing in regions outside of North America and Europe.
Dr Silvia Montaña-Niño, Affiliate at the ADM+S Centre, University of Melbourne, says “We’ve done some initial work and found that fact checkers are packaging their content into reusable ‘checktainment’ explainer formats using video, memes, and infographics to engage local social media users. We’re keen to explore the regional differences a bit more.”
Through the research funding, Meta aims to support the growth of scientific knowledge and contribute to a shared understanding across the broader scientific community and technology industry on how social technology companies can better address integrity issues on their platforms.
“We are excited to grant these awards to cultivate new knowledge on integrity and establish deeper connections with global social science researchers,” says Umer Farooq, Director of Research for Integrity at Meta.
