Do fake news bother you?
Updated: Nov 11, 2022
We are working on figuring out the core entertaining feature for ID Karma as a Social Network. In this article we’d like to uncover the top candidate we have right now.
For the last few years fake news has been one of the hottest topics on the internet. Trump’s disinformation campaigns, Kremlin propaganda, and other fake news tools that conservatives use around the world. People struggle to figure out where the truth is.
Discovering the ideas for the core feature of ID Karma, we come to a conclusion that one of the most interesting features could be a game-like experience to discover the genuinity of news.
Different news are proposed to you that are posted or reposted publicly in ID Karma. So you have the opportunity to participate in discussion of their genuinity.
How fake busting works in ID Karma
ID Karma provides you relevant news articles to discuss;
ID Karma matches you with a number of people, who are also interested in getting information or providing their insights regarding the fakeness or genuinity of the article;
Together you provide and discuss opinions and evidences about the article;
You can argue and vote in the article discussions for a limited amount of time;
After the discussion time ups you are proposed to make a final decision, voting for one of the evidence or opinion provided;
When the voting finishes, you see the public result.
So, what we have here:
ID Karma provides you a guided process to make a group decision about genuinity of a news article;
ID Karma allows you to engage anonymously with other anonymous participants — so nothing except facts and logic can influence your opinion and opinions of your peers;
You may establish relationship with the most interesting people you find in the process, so neither their profession nor origin will influence who you include in the circle of interesting friends to interact with as in a usual social network;
You may object to such a fake busting approach. Let’s discuss possible objections.
Objection 1: fake busting is not an easy art
Let’s look at some simple techniques that everybody can use
Cross check different sources about same event;
Check the article against some famous and trusted source — how does some established agency talk about the event, and if they talk about the event at all;
Try to find illustrations and photos via google, whether it was used in some older news and in which context;
Collect some information about people involved, whether they can act or talk in the described manner — use logic.
You can find and propose any other techniques on the internet. Share in comments under the article your opinion and your findings.
Objection 2: public voting won’t tell you anything about genuinity of some information
First of all, ID Karma gathers a random group. So it’s hard to influence someone’s opinion or dominate voting by numbers.
The second point is anonymity (ID Karma even enforces to have different random profiles for different discussions). So you mostly engage with facts provided by people — not with their identities. That allows you to be as unbiased as possible.
And the final word regarding this objections. The social networks and discussions are about fun and news discussion is also mostly about the process not the result. It’s necessary here to meet new interesting people. To learn about others' opinions and most importantly to learn about your opinion from others. Of course we will propose more efficient tools around this core approach, but they are not for discussion of the core feature, that has a goal to engage and entertain you in ID Karma Social network.
Wrap up
We proposed the core feature for ID Karma Social Network — fake busting community. It’s a software guided process to discover the truth about the way events are depicted on the Internet.
The question is: whether it would be interesting and engaging for you.
Please, share your opinion in the comments!
Join our closed beta test or learn more about ID Karma.