Agents for Fighting Misinformation Spread on Twitter: Design Challenges

Containing misinformation spread on social media has been acknowledged as a great socio-technical challenge in the last years. Despite advances, practical and timely solutions to properly communicate verified (mis)information to social media users are an evidenced need. We introduce a multi-agent approach to bridge Twitter users with fact-checked information. First, a social bot, which nudges users sharing verified misinformation, and a conversational agent that verifies if there is a reputable fact-check available and explains existing assessments in natural language. Both agents share the same requirements of evoking trust and being perceived by Twitter users as an opportunity to build their media literacy. To this end, two preliminary human-centred studies are presented, the first one looking for an adequate identity for the bot, and the second for understanding preferences for credibility indicators when explaining the assessment of misinformation. The results indicate what this design research should pursue to create agents that are consistent in their presentation, friendly, engaging, and credible.