Misinformation has always been a problem, but the combination of widespread social media as well as a loose definition of what can be seen as factual truth in recent times has lead to a veritable explosion in misinformation over the course of the past few years. The problem is so dire that in a lot of cases websites are made specifically because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing misinformation to spread more easily, and this is a problem that might just have been addressed by a new machine learning tool.
This machine learning tool was developed by researchers at UCL, Berkeley and Cornell will be able to detect domain registration data and use this to ascertain whether the URL is legitimate or if it has been made specifically to legitimize a certain piece of information that people might be trying to spread around. A couple of other factors also come into play here. For example, if the identity of the person that registered the domain is private, this might be a sign that the site is not legitimate. The timing of the domain registration matters to. If it was done around the time a major news event broke out, such as the recent US presidential election, this is also a negative sign.
With all of that having been said and out of the way, it is important to note that this new machine learning tool has a pretty impressive success rate of about 92%, which is the proportion of fake domains it was able to discover. Being able to tell whether or not a news source is legitimate or whether it is direct propaganda is useful because of the fact that it can help reduce the likelihood that people might just end up taking the misinformation seriously.
This machine learning tool was developed by researchers at UCL, Berkeley and Cornell will be able to detect domain registration data and use this to ascertain whether the URL is legitimate or if it has been made specifically to legitimize a certain piece of information that people might be trying to spread around. A couple of other factors also come into play here. For example, if the identity of the person that registered the domain is private, this might be a sign that the site is not legitimate. The timing of the domain registration matters to. If it was done around the time a major news event broke out, such as the recent US presidential election, this is also a negative sign.
With all of that having been said and out of the way, it is important to note that this new machine learning tool has a pretty impressive success rate of about 92%, which is the proportion of fake domains it was able to discover. Being able to tell whether or not a news source is legitimate or whether it is direct propaganda is useful because of the fact that it can help reduce the likelihood that people might just end up taking the misinformation seriously.
Photo: Jub Rubjob / Getty Images
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