'Debunk-It-Yourself': Health Professionals' Strategies for Responding to Misinformation on TikTok

TL;DR

Misinformation on TikTok poses real risks to health information, especially around nutrition and mental health. The paper introduces Debunk-It-Yourself (DIY), a health-professional-led, platform-independent counter-misinformation approach that uses stitching/duetting to directly debunk false claims with scientific evidence and clinical experience. Through an IRB-approved exploratory survey of $n=14$ health professionals and TikTok metadata from $N=26{,}866$ videos across $135$ accounts, the study maps a formal DIY workflow comprising initiation, selection, creation, response, and post-debunking actions, highlighting a symmetric, evidence-based approach that challenges platform moderation norms. Key findings show DIY debunking is driven by perceived harm and viral content, relies on scientific sources rather than third-party fact-checkers, and faces algorithmic and moderation barriers, informing platform-level recommendations and cross-platform, policy-relevant strategies for countering health misinformation.

Abstract

Misinformation is "sticky" in nature, requiring a considerable effort to undo its influence. One such effort is debunking or exposing the falsity of information. As an abundance of misinformation is on social media, platforms do bear some debunking responsibility in order to preserve their trustworthiness as information providers. A subject of interpretation, platforms poorly meet this responsibility and allow dangerous health misinformation to influence many of their users. This open route to harm did not sit well with health professional users, who recently decided to take the debunking into their own hands. To study this individual debunking effort - which we call 'Debunk-It-Yourself (DIY)' - we conducted an exploratory survey n=14 health professionals who wage a misinformation counter-influence campaign through videos on TikTok. We focused on two topics, nutrition and mental health, which are the ones most often subjected to misinformation on the platform. Our thematic analysis reveals that the counterinfluence follows a common process of initiation, selection, creation, and "stitching" or duetting a debunking video with a misinformation video. The 'Debunk-It-Yourself' effort was underpinned by three unique aspects: (i) it targets trending misinformation claims perceived to be of direct harm to people's health; (ii) it offers a symmetric response to the misinformation; and (iii) it is strictly based on scientific evidence and claimed clinical experience. Contrasting the 'Debunk-It-Yourself' effort with the one TikTok and other platforms (reluctantly) put in moderation, we offer recommendations for a structured response against the misinformation's influence by the users themselves.

Figures (5)

• Figure 1: 'Debunk-It-Yourself' process
• Figure 2: Total number of videos posted each day.
• Figure 3: Total number of views of debunking videos.
• Figure 4: Total number of likes of debunking videos.
• Figure 5: Distribution of hashtags used in debunking videos.