Non-profit Tales of Turning leads community fight against misinformation

Tales of Turning is a local organisation using community engagement to make a social impact.

Focused on community-led digital interventions to combat misinformation and hate speech, they aim to address toxicity through innovative methods such as "social truth questioning", says director Stefan Snel.

This method involves asking reflective questions on social media posts to disrupt emotional reactions and encourage critical thinking and peacebuilding.

This helps reduce the spread of harmful content and misinformation during elections and other social campaigns.

This was a trial during the 2021 local government elections and the 2024 national election.

During the 2024 elections, their intervention achieved an impressive 82% reduction in hate speech, using non-confrontational prompts like “Is this true?” or “Tell me more”.

Snel said that the community played an integral role in promoting healthier online discourse.

"Our objective is to get people to reflect on what they're posting or to get people who are reading that post to reflect on that… It involves the community taking the reins in social media, and it's not really hard to do."

The organisation has also collaborated with institutions like the University of Washington and implemented projects addressing gender-based violence, xenophobia, and child online safety

Their work with schoolchildren aims to create peer support systems to help them navigate online threats like bullying and grooming.

"We know that children don't tell their parents or teachers what's going on online because they're scared of losing access to their devices. And the idea is to set up a peer support system where kids can talk to each other and share," he said.

To listen to Snel in conversation with CapeTalk’s Clarence Ford, click the audio player below: