Fake news stories abound on Facebook. Most of the postings are produced by scammers looking to make money on the number of clicks these stories receive. Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, says they are working on a way to weed out these stories. In the meantimes, some creative people have come up with solutions of their own.
The Washington Post ran a story on November 11, 2016 about a group of college students who developed an algorithm that authenticates what is real and what is fake on Facebook. Read about these problem solvers at this link.
A programmer named Daniel Sieradski has developed a Chrome extension called the B.S.Detector. Read about this hoax detector at "Rid Your Feed of Fake News With This Hoax-Detecting Chrome Extension"
The Washington Post ran a story on November 11, 2016 about a group of college students who developed an algorithm that authenticates what is real and what is fake on Facebook. Read about these problem solvers at this link.
A programmer named Daniel Sieradski has developed a Chrome extension called the B.S.Detector. Read about this hoax detector at "Rid Your Feed of Fake News With This Hoax-Detecting Chrome Extension"
The amount of misinformation that is spread on the web is staggering! It is spread mainly via Websites, Social Networks, and Email. The Hot Topics for such misinformation are Politics, Government Policies, Religion and various Scams and Hoaxes.
Some websites have taken up the task of spreading awareness against rumors by presenting evidence and hard facts. Let’s look at some of the best sites that help us distinguish between the truth and rumors. |
Fact Checking Sites
- Politifact
PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics. PolitiFact is run by editors and reporters from the Tampa Bay Times, an independent newspaper in Florida, as is PunditFact, a site devoted to fact-checking pundits. The PolitiFact state sites are run by news organizations that have partnered with the Times. The state sites and PunditFact follow the same principles as the national site. - Snopes
This highly regarded rumor analyzing site has been researching rumors since 1995. - FactCheck.org
PolitiFact staffers research statements and rate their accuracy on the Truth-O-Meter, from True to False. The most ridiculous falsehoods get the lowest rating, Pants on Fire. - Opensecrets.org
Open Secrets is a nonpartisan, independent and nonprofit, run by the Center for Responsive Politics, which is the nation’s premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy. Open Secrets are by far the best source for discovering how much and where candidates get their money. They also track lobbying groups and whom they are funding. - Sunlight Foundation
A national, nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that uses the tools of civic tech, open data, policy analysis and journalism to make our government and politics more accountable and transparent to all. Sunlight primarily focuses on money’s role in politics. - FlackCheck.org
Headquartered at the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, FlackCheck.org is the political literacy companion site to the award-winning FactCheck.org. The site provides resources designed to help viewers recognize flaws in arguments in general and political ads in particular.