Verifying Sources: Check’s New Annotation Feature

As citizens and journalists around the world increasingly turn to digital sources and social networks for news and information, verification and checking of news, photos and quotations is essential. Investigating and understanding this online information ecosystem requires checking not only the content, but also the source of that content.

Social accounts on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Instagram are often valid, credible sources. But sometimes they can be sockpuppets, bots and hoax accounts spreading misinformation and disinformation.

In recent years, sockpuppets, spambot armies and astroturfing have become valuable tools for governments all over the world to influence public opinion, stifle dissent, and spread misinformation. In researching the topic, we found reports of social network manipulation in some form by governments all around the world, including USA, Russia, China, Mexico, Syria, Egypt, Bahrain, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. (Tom Trewinnard, 2016)

In building Check–our platform for collaborative verification and fact-checking–we wanted to expand functionality to mark sources as credible, or flag them as sockpuppets, bots, or mal-intentioned actors. We’re pleased to announce the first release of our source annotation features!

As of this release, adding any link @Check automatically takes its author and creates a new ‘Source’ entry for it. Sources also can be created manually by pasting the link to their social media profile on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook or instagram:

All links added to Check that have been created this source as an author, will be listed below the “Media” tab on the source page. Check users can also add notes and annotations about the source using the notes tab.

Our Sources functionality is a work in progress: coming soon are customizable “Statuses” that can be assigned to a source based on users’ comments about credibility, and we’re working to expose some of the source metadata that may be relevant in the verification process. We’ll be working closely with our network of excellent partners to refine features and develop Sources in the coming months.

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If you work in digital media and want to try out Check as a way to streamline and coordinate your social news gathering and verification workflow, request early access to Check here.