During the 26th Poznań Science and Art Festival, members of our Department conducted a lecture on recognizing false information on the Internet. Participants had the opportunity to ask questions and share their experiences, which further enriched the discussion and made the event not only educational, but also interactive.
Dr. Włodzimierz Lewoniewski, Dr. Piotr Stolarski and Dr. Milena Stróżyna presented good practices in identifying true and false information on real examples from various popular websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Wikipedia and others.
Recognizing fake news can sometimes be difficult, but there are certain characteristics that often accompany this type of news. For example, fake news often includes sensationalist claims or headlines that are designed to attract attention and evoke emotion. If the information seems too unbelievable or too dramatic to be true, it is worth checking it out. In addition, it is worth paying attention to language errors – messages containing a lot of grammar and spelling errors can be fake news. Professional media usually care about the linguistic correctness of their publications. In addition, false information may contain elements of truth that are distorted or taken out of context to serve a purpose.
As part of content evaluation, it is also worth paying attention to the reputation of the sender. If the information comes from a person or organization that is not known or that has negative opinions, it may be false information. It is worth checking the sender’s reputation. Fake news often contains elements of truth that are distorted or taken out of context to serve a purpose. You can additionally pay attention to the presence of sources of information – false information often does not give any sources or refers to unknown or unreliable sources. Fake news may use old articles or photos that are presented as current.
The Department of Information Systems is currently implementing the OpenFact project, which is carried out in cooperation with technological and substantive partners, including: Google, Facebook, Bright Data, Harvard University, as well as leading fact-checking organizations in Poland. During the evaluation of the first phase of the INFOSTRATEG program of the National Center for Research and Development, in the field of fake news detection using artificial intelligence, the OpenFact project received the highest number of points.
Poznań Festival of Science and Art – an event of a scientific and artistic nature, which aims to promote knowledge among the inhabitants of Poznań, nearby regions and visitors from other parts of Poland. As part of the 26th edition of the Festival, classes at the Poznań University of Economics and Business took place on May 16. Event website: festiwal.amu.edu.pl