What's the best way to defeat ISIS online? It turns out that the answer might be to offer advertising credit to people to encourage them to "counter speak", and speak out against extremism.
Facebook has revealed some of the experiments it has been conducting into the best ways to reach extremists, and persuade them that violence is a pretty terrible idea.
Mad Men vs Mad Men
The company has also tried dishing out free ad-credit worth up to $1000 to counter-speech groups. In one experiment, German comedian Arbi el Ayachi was able to publicise a video debunking a myth that had spread amongst right-wing extremists that Halal meat is poisonous to Christians.
And in a third experiment, Facebook partnered with the US State Department and a company called Edventure Partners which offered cash and ad credits to college students to create messages against extremism.
"We need narratives that promote tolerance, peace and understanding," Bickert is quoted as saying. "Those narratives can't come from us. Those voices are you."
It'll be interesting to see if any these strategies are adopted more widely and also if other platforms take such a strong stance against extremism.
(Via The Verge)