Politech

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Sample Filled Out
Extension Screenshot
Example Bias/Reputation Description
Example Tweet

Inspiration

Allow constituents to easily advocate for issues that are important to them while combatting the growing problem of fake news and misleading reporting.

What it does

The Politech google chrome extension allows the user to automatically and easily tweet a news article at their local political representative to share current events or perspectives they believe their government representatives should see. The extension also alerts the user if a website they are using as a source is biased or has a poor reputation (high risk of fake news).

How we built it

Create a basic chrome extension, Create text fields under basic pop-up, Create two clickable objects, One should create an alert after running the current domain through our getInfo js file, The other should open a twitter message using the message and legislator (looked up from the address)

Challenges we ran into

Working with the chrome interface and creating code in the proper format for a chrome extension posed as some of the main challenges. Furthermore there were issues converting API code designed for NodeJS to regular JS to make it compatible for the chrome extension format. Integrating the direct connection to twitter posting also proved difficult, while we also actively learned JS and HTML as we we progressed.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Using the Phone2Action API to find the local legislators of a user based on their address, developing code that displays bias and credibility of many major and commonly-searched news outlets, and learning to utilize JavaScript, HTML, and CSS,

What we learned

How to use JS, HTML, CSS, Twitter Web Access, and the Phone2Action API.

What's next for Politech

Implement machine learning to read articles and analyze them for bias on a case by case basis, and also allow users to select which of their representatives they would like to tweet (state senators, US senators, etc.)