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CICS Student Develops Solution to Facebook Fake News Problem

Nabanita De Fake News Problem

Nabanita De, a second-year CICS master's student, is part of a team that has developed an algorithm, in the form of a Chrome extension, to filter the authenticity of Facebook posts. 

The work is in response to a proliferation of fake news posted on Facebook during the presidential campaign. De and three other students developed the algorithm during a hackathon at Princeton University held Nov. 11-13.

De told Business Insider that the extension works by classifying posts - including pictures, links, and more - using the reputation of the source, phishing website databases, and Google search. The extension also adds an icon on the story to indicate if it has been verified or not.

Dubbed "FiB: Stop Living a Lie," the open source extension and its student developers have received extensive local and national media coverage, with stories appearing on NBC News and National Public Radio, and in The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, International Business Times, and Mashable.com, among other print and online publications.   

Facebook sponsored the Princeton hackathon where FiB won Google's "Best Moonshot" prize. To date, neither company has contacted De or her teammates for help identifying fake news on their platform.

 

Photo credit: Nabanita De