Show HN: Interested in an automated fact checking service? | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: Interested in an automated fact checking service?

liedetector.it

3 pointsjakemanger6 comments

Hey everyone, I'm working on an automated fact checking service that works like so:

1. Paste a link to the website, X or facebook comment you want to fact check,

2. Select a quote on the site,

3. We search for relevant results from research databases, reputable news sites and searches on the web,

4. You get a web page with the quote, fact check rating, summary of the findings and sources,

5. Share that generated fact check page back to the source, so people can be aware of the relevant information.

This is a work in progress (currently a landing page) and I'd love to know if you are interested in it (it's worth me continuing to work on). Would love to hear your opinions or ideas :)

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> currently a landing page

So why is it a Show HN if we can't test it?

https://news.ycombinator.com/showhn.html

Show HN is for something you've made that other people can play with. HN users can try it out, give you feedback, and ask questions in the thread.

On topic: things people can run on their computers or hold in their hands. For hardware, you can post a video or detailed article. For books, a sample chapter is ok.

Off topic: blog posts, sign-up pages, newsletters, lists, and other reading material. Those can't be tried out, so can't be Show HNs. Make a regular submission instead.

My apologies. Didn’t realise that rule!

I think it's a great idea, but I'm afraid you'll find that those who want it don't need it, and those who need it don't want it.

Fact checking has always been readily available. The reputable sites are well-known, by definition. If people wanted them they'd get it.

What everybody wants is for the facts to be forced on other people. But they are convinced that they know the facts beforehand, because the "reputable" sources are lying and only their special sources are willing to tell the truth.

I don't want you to be as cynical as me. You should go do this.

It's awesome you have a landing page, but a waitlist is not really in the spirit of Show HN because there is nothing to play with or try out. If you want to talk with people about something you might build, Ask HN is a better venue. Or a blog post where you talk about your ideas. Good luck.

> We search for relevant results from research databases, reputable news sites and searches on the web,

What sources do you use to "fact check" ?

Do you know what circular reporting is? How do you handle it?

How would this service handle the Hunter Biden laptop story for example. Once considered Russia disinfo by MSM and many spies is now known it was not disinfo and Hunter really did leave the laptop behind and the info on it is fact.

There is already a few "fact checking" sites out their that are very biased. For example snopes took years and after the election to to finally confirm Trump Did Not Call Neo-Nazis and White Supremacists 'Very Fine People'. The timing to confirm this took too long.

I'd say this is an interesting topic, so I'm very interested in your thoughts and how to handle. Thanks!

Thanks for the great comment! Bear in mind, this is the initial version of the site that should be running in a couple of weeks.

The app has three groups of sources:

- peer-reviewed research published by scientific journals (highest reliability)

- reputable news websites (medium reliability)

- internet searches (lowest reliability)

The Hunter laptop and Neo-nazi cases are tough ones, but essentially it would provide an overview of what sources if any are providing that information. Identifying original sources and when they were created can be very illuminating on determining whether it’s reliable or likely misinformation. The app provides a scale from completely false to true to gauge a level of uncertainty. If low reputation sites are spreading misinformation through circular reporting, that would register as having low reliability and hence not much evidence behind it. I’d love to know if you or anyone else has other ideas to tackle your examples. They’re good ones.

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