News Bias Check

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  Architecture

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  Data input canister

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  Enter, validate and lookup news ratings

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  Sample news data sources added

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  Chrome Extension installation

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  News ratings displayed in chrome extension

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  Detailed news ratings on context

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  Candid UI

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  News ratings in facebook, twitter and reddit

News BiasCheck

BiasCheck is a Decentralised application to help combat fake news and reduce bias in information consumption. It has a chrome extension that uses APIs on a backend canister deployed on IC network which shows bias/accuracy info about all news articles online.

The chrome extension works across various social media and news sites and shows information about bias and accuracy of the article.

Inspiration

Disinformation — that is, content that intentionally misleads for political or financial gain — is nothing new. But as we’ve seen over the last year in particular, digital platforms have made it significantly easier to spread dangerous conspiracy theories

Decentralized aps offer a potential solution to combat the growing threat of digital disinformation.Blockchain systems use a decentralized, immutable ledger to record information in a way that’s constantly verified and re-verified by every party that uses it, making it nearly impossible to alter information after it’s been created.

Blockchain’s ability to provide decentralized validation and a clear chain of custody makes it potentially effective as a tool to track disinformation and biases in news.

Architechture

Tech Stack

• Backend canister and UI canister deployed on IC network
• API exposed on backened canister using JSON/HTTP mokoto contracts.
• Chrome extension that consumes API on IC and runs across all social media sites (twitter, facebook, google and reddit)

Challenges we ran into

• Learning Mokoto was challenging but it was equally rewarding deploying an app on the IC network
• Getting chrome extension work across multiple social media sites

Accomplishments that we're proud of

• Building a functional chrome extension which works on a dfinity canister backend.
• Smart contracts for inserting, looking up and validating news sources

What we learned

• Learnt building apps on the Internet computer network
• Also learnt about various news APIs and

What's next for News Bias Check

• Adding Internet identity, tokenized rewards for users reporting fake news
  • Import news from sources like Newscatcher API and classify them using data on the IC backend canister

References

• https://hbr.org/2021/07/how-blockchain-can-help-combat-disinformation -Pariser, E. (2017). The Filter Bubble: How the New Personalized Web Is Changing What We Read and How We Think. Pariser: https://medium.com/@10797952/the-causes-and-effects-of-filter-bubbles-and-how-to-break-free-df6c5cbf919f

Built With

• candid
• chromeextension
• dfinity
• internetcomputer
• motoko
• node.js
• react