This Bass Connections project aimed to build databases, systems and apps to make fact-checkers more effective and help media consumers identify misinformation and disinformation faster.

Building on previous Data+, CS+ and Bass Connections projects, the project team furthered the development of an automated fact-checking system for public use. A pop-up fact-checking service allows users to verify statements they hear in real time without having to initiate the research themselves.

Part of the project focused on vaccine misinformation. Team members built a taxonomy for common anti-vaccination tropes, developed methods to identify appropriate intervention information, and designed a survey to create a large dataset for training automation algorithms.

Timing

Summer 2019 – Spring 2020

Team Outputs

Fact-checking and Democracy (Fortin Foundation Bass Connections Virtual Showcase 2020)

William R. Adair. New Tech and Check ($700,000 grant awarded from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, 2019)

Data and Technology for Fact-checking (poster by Archana Ahlawat, Felicia Chen, David Cheng, Maya Choudhury, Fangge Deng, Joyce Er, Sherry Feng, Frank Geng, Mary Gooneratne, Yuanhao Guan, Ethan Holland, Sherry Hu, JJ Jiang, Kamran Kara-Pabani, Grant Kim, Min Soo Kim, Drew Learner, Sanha Lim, Emily Liu, Stephanie Mei, Andres Montoya-Aristizabal, Matthew O’Boyle, Dora Peke, Jackson Proudfoot, Rahul Sengottuvelu, Ali Soyupak, Charles Todd, Caroline Wang, Jason Wang, Connie Wu, Harry Xie, Siyi Xu, David Yoon, Arthur Zhao, Daniel Zhou, Liuyi Zhu, Towqir Aziz, Xinghao Cheng, Mayuresh Kenjir, Junbo Li, Stavros Sintos, Yuhao Wen, Han (Hannah) Yan, Bill Adair, Pankaj K. Agarwa, Jun Yang)

Data and Technology for Fact-checking (video)

This Team in the News

Team Promotes Democracy through Fact-checking

See earlier related team, Data and Technology for Fact-checking (2018-2019), and a Data+ summer project, Data and Technology for Fact-checking (2018).

mage: Video still from Automated Fact-Checking App, by Duke University