Three prophylactic interventions to counter fake news on social media

Abstract: Fake news on Social Media undermines democratic institutions and processes. Especially since 2016, researchers from many disciplines have focussed on ways to address the phenomenon. Much of the research focus to date has been on identification and understanding the nature of the phenomenon in and between social networks and of a rather reactive nature. We propose interventions that focus on individual user empowerment, and social media structural change that is prophylactic (pre exposure), rather than therapeutic (post exposure) with the goal of reducing the population exposed to fake news. We investigate interventions that result in greater user elaboration (cognitive effort) before exposure to fake news. We propose three interventions i) psychological inoculation, ii) fostering digital and media literacy and iii) imposition of user transaction costs. Each intervention promises to illicit greater cognitive effort in message evaluation and reduce the likelihood of creating, sharing, liking and consuming 'fake news'.