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posted by n1 on Tuesday August 26 2014, @04:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the most-of-twitter-to-be-flagged dept.

The National Science Foundation is funding the “Truthy” database, intended to detect “false and misleading ideas,” "political smears," and other "social pollution” in online political activity. Researchers at Indiana University have received $919,917 (so far) for this project. The resulting open-source platform will be made publicly available, including via a web service open to the public for "monitoring trends, bursts, and suspicious memes.”

According to the grant, “This service could mitigate the diffusion of false and misleading ideas, detect hate speech and subversive propaganda, and assist in the preservation of open debate."

 
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  • (Score: 2) by MrGuy on Tuesday August 26 2014, @06:20PM

    by MrGuy (1007) on Tuesday August 26 2014, @06:20PM (#85820)

    This service could mitigate the diffusion of false and misleading ideas, detect hate speech and subversive propaganda, and assist in the preservation of open debate.

    Or, it could do exactly the opposite. It depends on how much you trust the person running the service.

    Any scoring service can easily be manipulated to promote some ideas at the expense of others.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   2  
  • (Score: 2) by opinionated_science on Tuesday August 26 2014, @07:08PM

    by opinionated_science (4031) on Tuesday August 26 2014, @07:08PM (#85839)

    i read this and assumed it was what advertising/marketing already does!! Meme propagation...

    Financial liability for BS would be much better.....!