prebunk

English

Etymology

Blend of pre- +‎ debunk. By surface analysis, pre- +‎ bunk.

Verb

prebunk (third-person singular simple present prebunks, present participle prebunking, simple past and past participle prebunked)

  1. To counter potential misinformation by warning people against it before it is disseminated.
    • 2017 February 12, Sean Greene, “Fake news may be vulnerable to ‘vaccination’ Experiment shows that ‘pre-bunking’ can offset false information”, in Baltimore Sun, page A 6:
      They predicted that the warning would work by “pre-bunking” the false information that may come someone's way (rather than debunking it afterward). […] However, if the fake petition was “pre-bunked” with a vaccine, subjects held on to their higher estimation of a scientific consensus.
    • 2019 October 29, John Thornhill, “Developing tools in the fight against deepfakes”, in Financial Times, page 15:
      The theory is that it is easier to “prebunk” disinformation before it spreads than to debunk it once it has taken hold.
    • 2020 October 27th, Mike Isaac, “Twitter to Highlight Accurate Voting Information”, in New York Times, page A 15:
      Twitter on Monday announced a new effort to preemptively debunk, or “prebunk” in Twitter parlance, some of the most commonly circulated false and misleading information about the election.
    • 2022, Ed Coper, Facts and Other Lies: Welcome to the Disinformation Age, Allen & Unwin, →ISBN, page 282:
      Just as Fox News viewers were more likely to believe Iraq had weapons of mass destruction at the turn of the century, in our current disinformation age the lies are fed from on high before they ricochet around the internet. Exposing the people who do so in Australia, and removing them from the perch they sing from, can help collectively prebunk us.
    • 2024 October 30, “ELECTION INTERFERENCE: HOW THE FBI “PREBUNKED” A TRUE STORY ABOUT THE BIDEN FAMILY’S CORRUPTION IN ADVANCE OF THE 2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION”, in United States House Judiciary Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government‎[1], pages 928, 990:
      It is impossible to know what would have happened if the FBI had not prebunked the allegations about Biden family influence peddling. But it is unquestionable that the FBI’s actions influenced the 2020 presidential election. And it cannot happen again. […] The FBI, through the FITF, engaged in a months-long campaign to influence the 2020 election by prebunking the story about Biden family influence peddling, as supported by material recovered from Hunter Biden’s laptop. […] Since 2020, independent watchdogs have criticized the lack of protocol that allowed the FBI to successfully prebunk the true Post story.

Noun

prebunk (plural prebunks)

  1. An act of prebunking.
    • 2020 November 30, Anumeha Chaturvedi, “No Vaccine Yet for Fake News Epidemic”, in The Economic Times, New Delhi:
      [Twitter] will also publish so-called ‘prebunks’ specific to potentially misleading information on vaccines, they said.
    • 2022 April 24, “Twitter outlaws climate sceptics”, in Sunday Post, Dundee, page 6:
      The company already has a dedicated climate topic on its site and offered what it described as “prebunks” during last year’s UN climate conference to counter misinformation surrounding climate change.
    • 2023 January 18, Targeted News Service, “National Association of Science Writers: Beyond The Debunk - How Science Journalists Can Report On Misinformation”, in Proquest‎[2] (Wire Feed):
      The prebunk prepares readers with genuine information as well as the ability to spot the exact misinformation that may be coming their way.
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