Jigsaw is Google's in-house "Intelligence Agency"
From RAND, 2021:
Detecting Conspiracy Theories on Social Media
Improving Machine Learning to Detect and Understand Online Conspiracy Theories
Conspiracy theories circulated online via social media contribute to a shift in public discourse away from facts and analysis and can contribute to direct public harm. Social media platforms face a difficult technical and policy challenge in trying to mitigate harm from online conspiracy theory language. As part of Google's Jigsaw unit's effort to confront emerging threats and incubate new technology to help create a safer world, RAND researchers conducted a modeling effort to improve machine-learning (ML) technology for detecting conspiracy theory language. They developed a hybrid model using linguistic and rhetorical theory to boost performance. They also aimed to synthesize existing research on conspiracy theories using new insight from this improved modeling effort. This report describes the results of that effort and offers recommendations to counter the effects of conspiracy theories that are spread online........MUCH MORE
From the “Policy Recommendations for Mitigating the Spread of and Harm from Conspiracy Theories” section:
Distrust of AuthorityTurning to other news:
These conspiracists also distrust authority and believe that those who
produce the news are lying to them....
