66 FUTURESHOCK InVID
An EU co-funded project has developed tools to check the factuality of user-generated content, social media posts and online video. They’re already being used by newsrooms worldwide to fight back against fake news F IS FOR F* OFF TO FAKE NEWS
e’re living in the era of fake news, they say, where all information is suspect. But news organisations, software
Deutsche Welle, one of the partners in the InVID consortium. “We worked on algorithm-supported analysis and verification of digital content, as well as other legal issues about how to approach and use social media. One of the outcomes of that project was that algorithm-supported video verification is still quite a big challenge on its own.” Spangenberg works in Deutsche Welle at Research and Cooperations Project which participates in future- looking technology projects for broadcast, especially around IP, and has been involved in the InVID project since its inception. Building the knowledge gained with the Reveal project, the consortium, which includes European broadcasters Deutsche Welle and AFP, Spain’s University de Lleida, and several private companies and research organisations, began R&D on easy-to-use components that could help identify fake or misleading content. The first of these made publically available was was the InVID browser plug-in.
developers and international institutions are fighting back with a growing array of tools and techniques to help sort the facts from the falsehoods and the meaning from the manipulation. The European Union’s Horizon 2020 Programme was the biggest EU Research and Innovation programme ever, making nearly €80 billion of funding available over seven years, from 2014 to 2020. In January 2016, funded by Horizon 2020, the InVID project launched. A consortium of tech companies, broadcasters and institutions joined forces to develop a set of tools for video verification. This has resulted in a suite of tools which include a free browser plug-in to help everyone from journalists to amateur fact-finders to verify online media. “We had previously been involved in a project called Reveal (https:// revealproject.eu),” says Jochen Spangenberg, Innovation Manager at German public international broadcaster
I THINK IT’S ONLY GOING TO BECOME MORE SOPHISTICATED WHEN IT COMES TO MEDIA MANIPULATION
feedzine feed.zine feedmagazine.tv
Powered by FlippingBook