KARACHI: Pakistan researchers are among winners of Facebook misinformation project. Facebook has announced the winners of its Foundation Integrity Research: Misinformation and Polarization request for proposals.

Among the global list of winners are Agha Ali Raza and Ihsan Ayyub Qazi from Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS), whose proposal shone during the competitive selection process.

Misinformation and polarization are fundamental challenges Facebook faces, not just as a company with the mission of bringing people together but also as members of societies dealing with layered challenges ranging from election interference to a global pandemic.

At the end of February, Facebook Research launched a request for proposals focusing on these dual challenges. "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.

Agha Ali Raza and Ihsan Ayyub Qazi's 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.

Researcher are happy that their research been awarded the grant by Facebook which would serve as a stepping stone for us to take our project forward.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020