Context
In recent years, technological advances and the massive use of the Internet and social networks have aggravated the problem of disinformation due to the speed at which the content is disseminated.
In this context, there are different entities specialized in the verification process (fact-checking) and they are dedicated to the monitoring and contrast of content, data and information that circulate through the network. However, it is a slow and manual process that requires time and resources.
Therefore, it is essential to test and validate innovative technology solutions that will help optimise and automate the fact-checking process and thus help reduce the spread and impact of disinformation on society.
Polytechnic University of Madrid (in Spanish: UPM) is one of the winners on the Call for Solution: Tech against Disinformation .
The solution
The solution implements a multilingual architecture recognizing languages such as: Spanish, English, Catalonian, Basque or Galician, among many other international languages. This allows to compare information in different languages without translation (i.e., a tweet written in Catalan with a fact verified by an English fact-checker).
DisTrack is a tool to help monitoring the presence of a false claim in social networks such as Twitter, and to analyse the whole spreading cascade, from its first appearance in the OSN to the last tweets published about the topic.
The idea is to provide an instrument to explore the propagation cascade of a piece of misinformation circulating throughout Twitter, one of the social networks where misinformation is more present. The operation of the tool starts by inserting a new claim by the user. Then, a series of modules, including advanced AI tools, the tool will provide a graphic representation of the tweets spreading that misinformation through graphs and other instruments. Additionally, the tool will also allow to explore the interaction with those who oppose to the false claim, including fact-checkers.
The pilot
The pilot is now in the execution phase (January 2022 – January 2023). It aims to provide a useful instrument (DisTrack tool) to analyse the spreading of a hoax that has been circulating on Twitter through a graphical interactive interface. By using DisTrack, it will be possible to analyse all interactions between users that contribute to dissemination of the false claim, together with anonymised individual information for each user, including the number of followers or following users. All this information, presented through a practical interactive interface, will instrumentalize a tool to understand the origin, the spreading process and the status of a hoax or rumour.
The tool is being tested with the collaborating verification agencies, Newtral and Verificat, who will also evaluate the solution.
Expected outcomes
The pilot objective is to test DisTrack tool that:
– Provides a visualization of the propagation cascade of hoaxes in social media
– Detects disinformation spreaders and influencers
– Supports tracking the origin of hoaxes
– Helps understanding the nature of disinformation and how to tackle it
