BETA
This is a BETA experience. You may opt-out by clicking here

More From Forbes

Edit Story

‘Fakehunter Challenge’ Heralds The Arrival Of Fake News Chatbot, App

Following
This article is more than 3 years old.

The winners of the 2020 #FakeHunter Challenge competition to locate and disprove online fake news recently announced its winners. The more than 2,000 applicants had plenty to work with in a year dominated by Covid-19 and the 2020 presidential election.

Presented by the Polish Press Agency (PAP) and GovTech, the contest offered four categories: Fake News Hunt, Fact Checking Challenge, Improve FakeHunter and Find the Real Source of Fake News. According to the rules, points were scored by “reporting false information, preparing a source-based analysis and indicating the source of false information.”

The competition was open to any internet user speaking Polish or English. From the original 2000+ entrants, more than 100 people were selected to join the competition. The largest number of entries took part in the "Fake News Hunt" category, in which the materials were submitted for verification by the contest’s jury. Rather than focus on efforts to expose or correct a single story, points accumulated with any contestant’s overall efforts.

The first prize and PLN 15,000 (about $4,000) went to Aleksander Kogut, while second place and PLN 10,000 (about $2,700) went to Monika Lada and third prize of PLN 5,000 (about $1,300) was claimed by Przemyslaw Fajerski.

Created to combat fake news during the contest period, a special browser plug-in allowed contestants to report potentially false reports. Any submitted news was verified by PAP experts, and confirmed false reports were published in a special news service at fakehunter.pap.pl. More than 1,000 story submission were flagged since spring, and more than 600 of which turned out to be fake news.

PAP now offered a new #FakeHunter Chatbot service, accessible via Facebook Messenger, The AI-based instrument allows automatic verification of news accuracy.

In mid-October, PAP activated a new #FakeHunter app. The Android- and iOS-compatible application focuses on Covid-19 and enables mobile device users to track down and report dangerous or false claims.

Follow me on Twitter or LinkedInCheck out my website or some of my other work here