'Debunk-It-Yourself': Health Professionals' Strategies for Responding to Misinformation on TikTok

TL;DR

Health professionals actively counter misinformation on TikTok through a DIY approach involving video responses, focusing on harmful health claims, and emphasizing scientific evidence, as a response to platform moderation shortcomings.

Contribution

This study explores the 'Debunk-It-Yourself' strategy used by health professionals on TikTok, highlighting its process, unique features, and potential for structured user-led misinformation countermeasures.

Findings

Professionals follow a process of initiation, creation, and stitching in debunking.

Debunking targets trending, harmful misinformation claims.

Responses are based on scientific evidence and clinical experience.

Abstract

Misinformation is "sticky" in nature, requiring a considerable effort to undo its influence. One such effort is debunking or exposing the falsity of information. As an abundance of misinformation is on social media, platforms do bear some debunking responsibility in order to preserve their trustworthiness as information providers. A subject of interpretation, platforms poorly meet this responsibility and allow dangerous health misinformation to influence many of their users. This open route to harm did not sit well with health professional users, who recently decided to take the debunking into their own hands. To study this individual debunking effort - which we call 'Debunk-It-Yourself (DIY)' - we conducted an exploratory survey n=14 health professionals who wage a misinformation counter-influence campaign through videos on TikTok. We focused on two topics, nutrition and mental health, which are the ones most often subjected to misinformation on the platform. Our thematic analysis reveals that the counterinfluence follows a common process of initiation, selection, creation, and "stitching" or duetting a debunking video with a misinformation video. The 'Debunk-It-Yourself' effort was underpinned by three unique aspects: (i) it targets trending misinformation claims perceived to be of direct harm to people's health; (ii) it offers a symmetric response to the misinformation; and (iii) it is strictly based on scientific evidence and claimed clinical experience. Contrasting the 'Debunk-It-Yourself' effort with the one TikTok and other platforms (reluctantly) put in moderation, we offer recommendations for a structured response against the misinformation's influence by the users themselves.