Is True facilitates distributed fact checking
This document exists to determine whether this project creates enough value to justify its existence.
We’ll update the document until either the project is killed or the project delivers demonstrable value to many users.
The intended audience is people familiar with the technologies the project will use and the business context in which the project competes. An understanding of the project is not needed; this document should describe all relevant features of the project.
Is True enables distributed fact-checking. By allowing users to know at a glance what information is true and who is trustworthy, we create a shared reality. The user interface is a browser extension.
With Covid-19, knowing who to trust is a matter of life and death.
Nationally, the unfettered spread of disinformation will lead to brutal dictatorship.
People want to know what information is true and who to trust. Whether it’s buying a product, deciding how to handle Covid-19, or choosing a political candidate, people want the truth.
Unfortunately, sophisticated marketers and algorithms have bombarded us with disinformation, usually so that the information source can monetize our attention.
Is True is a browser extension. When a user signs up, they select websites and social media profiles of people they trust. This creates the user’s Trust Network.
When the person visits a website, Is True tells uses the Trust Network to tell the user whether the website or news source is trustworthy.
For example, a user sees a post from the medical journal The Lancet on Twitter. When she visits the website, she sees that her brother, a doctor she trusts, trusts The Lancet.
While reading the article in The Lancet, the user read comments through Is True that her brother’s colleague Jane left. Jane is in the user’s trust network because the user trusts her brother, and her brother trusts Jane.
Is True lets users no what health advice to believe, so they are more likely to survive the Covid-19 pandemic. They’re able to buy better products and not get scammed.
Is True relies on user-generated content, so it can scale at speed fast enough to combat disinformation.
Users who are enthusiastic about pointing out disinfomation now have a venue for thoughtfully annotating the news.
The platform is entirely neutral, and therefore safe from partisan demonization. Users remain in complete control of their Trust Graph. They can choose to trust The New York Times, or Fox News, or both.
Eventually, the mere absence of trust on Is True will indicate that news is fake. When this occurs, it will become much more difficult to disseminate disinformation.
Facebook and Twitter do not want to be in the position of checking facts. Ultimately, each company would like to avoid being regulated and has a moral obligation to step in.
Fact-checking is expensive and there is no market for it, so there are few competitive organizations in the space.
The current system does too little to penalize new sources of information or to punish lying.
There exists a number of other browser extensions that aim to detect fake news. Our next step, in understanding whether to pursue this idea, is to examine each of the most popular extensions and see why nobody is using them.