LazyTruth Fact-Checking Widget

A software company has announced it's making a widget called LazyTruth that will scan all your incoming emails for misinformation:

tl;dr: We’re building an inbox widget that surfaces vetted information when you receive an email forward full of political myths, urban rumors, or security threats. It’s called LazyTruth.


Basically the widget will scan the text of your incoming emails and check them against "pre-existing nonpartisan information". It's an interesting idea. I'll be curious to see how well it works.

Of course, the main problem will be that the people who need the widget most, won't use it. And the widget won't work if some authoritative source hasn't already debunked the rumor. So it probably won't detect the latest twitter rumor you may be confronted with. (via Engadget)

Email Hoaxes Technology

Posted on Wed May 09, 2012


Comments

People are not interested in facts of fact-checking. They believe what they want to believe and even if you put their nose right into the facts, they will disregard those if these don't fit their preconceptions.
Posted by LaMa  on  Wed May 09, 2012  at  10:26 AM
"of" ---> or (not interested in facts OR fact-checking)
Posted by LaMa  on  Wed May 09, 2012  at  10:27 AM
It would be good if the sources for 'nonpartisan information'included the MoH.
Posted by MrHenderson  on  Sat Jun 09, 2012  at  02:46 PM
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