NEW TOOL TO BURST TWITTER RUMOURS

The digital journalism dashboard, currently being developed by an international group of researchers, will automatically detect questionable claims as they spread on social platforms like Twitter, and give an estimate of their veracity. By tracking and verifying information in real-time, the tool will allow journalists to keep pace with the huge volume of viral stories circulating online, and separate fact from fiction.

Bern, 8 June 2016 

New tool to burst Twitter rumours

The digital journalism dashboard, currently being developed by an international group of researchers, will automatically detect questionable claims as they spread on social platforms like Twitter, and give an estimate of their veracity. By tracking and verifying information in real-time, the tool will allow journalists to keep pace with the huge volume of viral stories circulating online, and separate fact from fiction.

SWI swissinfo.ch is working closely with developers of the tool as part of an innovative EU-funded project, named Pheme. swissinfo.ch’s role includes testing how the tool works in real news situations and helping developers to understand the needs of journalists. Another major task is to identify and annotate claims circulating on social media, so that technical partners can use this data to develop algorithms. 

In a short video and podcast created by swissinfo.ch, the researcher responsible for the project at SWI explains how swissinfo.ch spent several months tracking news stories online, analysing tweets for rumours, and checking if claims turned out to be true or false.

https://youtu.be/94NeKPvIoo4 
http://swissin.fo/1sqyLkJ 
http://swissin.fo/1Zfx9EY 

By participating in Pheme, swissinfo.ch is helping to find advanced solutions for newsrooms so they can integrate reliable social media sources into their reporting—and ultimately slow down the spread of misinformation on the internet.

Pheme
Project start: 1 January 2014
Duration: 36 Months 
Project partners: University of Sheffield (UK), Saarland University (Germany), MODUL University Vienna (Austria), Ontotext AD (Bulgaria), Atos Spain SA (Spain), King’s College London (UK), iHub Ltd. (Kenya), SWI swissinfo.ch (Switzerland), University of Warwick (UK)
www.pheme.eu 

SWI swissinfo.ch is the International Service of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation.