Content
Download the full report here.
Digital Public Square has been exploring new ways to counter mis and disinformation promoting ideologically motivated violent extremist (IMVE) narratives among vulnerable Canadians through its Project COMET initiative. As part of this project, DPS designed and tested four content frameworks in order to assess their respective impacts on building resilience to IMVE narratives and tactics online. Through gamification and interactivity, we aim to engage people with information about sensitive topics and issues in a way that is appealing, engaging, and impactful. This report highlights key takeaways and learnings from our experience testing four different intervention frameworks. Two interventions in particular had promising early results. After engaging with Manipulation Nation, a gamified intervention which aimed to increase resilience to manipulative tactics that are often used in IMVE rhetoric or arguments online, the majority of players agreed that their ability to spot manipulative information had improved after gameplay. In parallel to exploring and testing approaches that aimed to tackle vulnerability to IMVE through increased digital media literacy, we also tested different approaches that aimed to lead with empathy. In doing so, we observed promising results from the interventions that leveraged interactivity to engage players on sensitive topics and issues. The findings from these impact assessments informed the design and development of two separate digital interventions that were distributed online at scale and that collectively reached over 35,000 players since April 2023.
The early results are promising, and DPS looks forward to continuing to test and improve upon ways of tackling polarization online, particularly in the run-up to the 2025 Canadian federal election.
Written by DPS Team