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What’s trending in fake news? IU tools show which stories go viral, and if ‘bots’ are to blame

 

Hoaxy, Fakey and Botometer are three powerful tools for studying and countering online misinformation and manipulation

For Immediate Release May 17, 2018

 

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Researchers at the Indiana University Observatory on Social Media have launched upgrades to two tools playing a major role in countering the spread of misinformation online.

A Hoaxy search showing the spread of a news story on the Syria Civil Defense group

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A Hoaxy search traces the spread of a story on Twitter that claims the Syria Civil Defense, a volunteer search-and-rescue organization also known as the “White Helmets,” are staging mass casualty events like chemical weapons attacks. The red and dark pink dots indicate likely bots used to amplify the message.Image courtesy Hoaxy

 

The improvements to Hoaxy and Botometer are supported by the Knight Prototype Fund on Misinformation, a joint venture of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the Rita Allen Foundation and the Democracy Fundto address concerns about the spread of misinformation and to build trust in quality journalism. A third tool – an educational game designed to make people smarter news consumers – also launches with the upgrades.

 

“The majority of the changes to Hoaxy and Botometer are specifically designed to make the tools more usable by journalists and average citizens,” said Filippo Menczer, a professor in the IU School of Informatics, Computing and Engineering and a member of the IU Network Science Institute. “You can now easily detect when information is spreading virally, and who is responsible for its spread.”

 

Video: Filippo Menczer talks about Hoaxy

 

Hoaxy is a search engine that shows users how stories from low-credibility sources spread on Twitter. Botometer is an app that assigns a score to Twitter users based on the likelihood that the account is automated.

 

Hoaxy’s new functions show users which stories are trending on Twitter, including those from low-credibility sources. It also indicates what proportion of the users who are spreading the stories are likely to be “bots.” These new features were previewed April 12 at the International Symposium on Online Journalism in Austin, Texas, by Giovanni Luca Ciampaglia, a research scientist at the IU Network Science Institute who is part of the team that developed the tools.

Filippo Menczer

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Filippo Menczer.Eric Rudd, IU Communications