Topline

The Indivisible Project has launched what the progressive group hopes will be the biggest online campaign aimed at stopping disinformation, organizing thousands of activists in the hopes that spreading accurate user-generated content will be more effective than automated fact-checking.

Key Facts

The effort, called the "Truth Brigade," has gathered about 2,500 volunteers during its pilot program, but organizers hope that will soon grow to "a team of tens of thousands."

Unpaid volunteers will be tasked with taking part in a campaign every two weeks aimed at targeting a specific disinformation topic, particularly those with right-wing origins, with the goal of making a massive number of user-generated posts that social media algorithms will award.

Leah Greenberg, Indivisible's co-founder and co-executive director, told Forbes the group believes the "organic" content will have a larger reach and hopefully more influence than social media companies' fact-checking systems.

Volunteers’ work will be based on "trust" and there won't be a quality control system to start off with, according to Greenberg, but Indivisible will conduct assessments of what worked and what didn't after each campaign.

Messages will be crafted in the volunteers' own voice and most will be shared in an anonymous fashion through their own social media circles, with members strongly discouraged to quote misinformation, which Greenberg said only serves to spread misinformation even more.

Crucial Quote

"There are of course many folks with left leaning social circles, who will sometimes ask if their work in their own circle is worthwhile," Emily Phelps, press secretary for Indivisible, told Forbes. "All of us have left and centrist friends who nonetheless may be impacted by insidious misinformation."

Key Background

Misinformation has become a massive problem in the U.S. as more have turned to social media for news amid declines in trust of the "mainstream" press. It's been blamed for a massive drop in the number of new coronavirus vaccinations over the past several weeks, and for the fact most Republicans still haven't accepted that President Joe Biden won the 2020 election legitimately. Social media giants like Facebook and Twitter have responded by ramping up fact-checking efforts, and both have banned accounts managed by former President Donald Trump, which were a massive source of disinformation throughout his presidency. But the bans and fact-checking are extremely polarizing in their own right, with a Pew Research Center poll released this month finding 50% of adults believed Trump should not be banned from social media—just one percentage point higher than the 49% who said he should. In response, some Republican legislatures have taken up bills to tackle what they view as censorship by social media giants. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a bill this week allowing residents to sue social media companies for claims of censorship.

Big Number

82 million. That's how many impressions the "Truth Brigade" managed to gather during a pilot program in Colorado. The views came from a total of 21,400 posts, according to Indivisible—good for more than 3,800 views per post.

Tangent

The non-profit Indivisible was founded in 2016 by Greenberg and Ezra Levin to start an organized movement to oppose Donald Trump as president. The organization quickly became a high-dollar progressive organizing outlet, raising $7.5 million in its first full year—mostly from large donations and grants. Greenberg and Levin were named to Time’s 100 Most Influential People list in 2019.

Further Reading

Fewer Americans Than Ever Before Trust The Mainstream Media (Forbes)

More Than Half Of Republicans Believe Voter Fraud Claims And Most Still Support Trump, Poll Finds (Forbes)

Florida Blocks Big Tech From Deplatforming Conservatives—But Legality In Question (Forbes)