BU Researchers Fight Back Against Fake News

Believe it or not, fake news has been around since the Great Moon Hoax written by The Sun. In 1835, they claimed that there was an alien civilization on the moon. Fast forward to the present day, and this isn't your great great grandparents' fake news.

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Fake news (and fact checkers) have become a fairly big problem. What's fake and what's real, who really knows? That's where the researchers at Binghamton University are coming to the rescue with some pretty cool technology.

Binghamton University's School of Management (SOM) has done some research and they have come up with a machine learning system. This can help content creators figure out which fake news stories are the most dangerous.

Binghamton University Researchers Fight Fake News

They take into account things like a person's education level and political beliefs. From there, they'll figure out how likely they are to be harmed by that fake news. Before you shout "Fact Checker", they are using fancy technology called blockchain instead of a human's opinion.

Blockchain is like a shared database that's super secure. By using blockchain, they can track fake news and stop it in its tracks. My question: How do you keep that out of the hands of evil. I digress.

They put this to the test and did a survey with 1,000 people. They asked both fake news fighters and regular people. if they would be willing to use blockchain to combat fake news.

Huh, who knew. There are people out there that are committed to using this technology to keep us "safe" from fake news. With their machine learning and blockchain technology they're making strides to keep us informed and protected from fake news.

So the next time that you see a news story that seems a little too good to be true, remember that there are researchers at Binghamton University that are fighting the good fight. My question: How do you keep that out of the hands of evildoers? I digress.