'Fact Checking' Built Into the Internet Itself

Researchers have developed another tool for their arsenal against the 'scourge' of 'fake News' and 'misinformation'. This time they want to build it fundamentally into the internet itself.

The premise is, any multimedia, and even non-visual media according to the end, can be signed using a key provided to 'trustworthy' news organizations, this key would be used to verify the integrity of a piece of media or information.

Currently, the researchers have developed a browser extension that will display a small shield next to certified content with metadata about the content available to end users.

OK....

Now the scary part....

The proposed system can be easily integrated to other closed-web system such as social media networks and easily applied to other non-visual multimedia files

This last part may seem innocuous, but it explains a little more about what the system actually is. Essentially, it sounds like it's going to be an api that can be used in the back end of websites or webapps.

The browser extension above seems harmless enough, but from what it sounds like, developers that choose to include this system in their apps or websites will have access to the metadata provided by the signed media and will ultimately have control over what they do or don't do with signed or unsigned media.

Again, doesn't sound too bad right?

Let's think of some possible applications for this technology...

Maybe, if you allow user content say...you could have an automatic check on any media uploaded by users, if it doesn't pass media verification, the content's auto deleted, or maybe if it's the user's third strike trying to upload 'unverified media' it's an autoban?

Maybe users that consistently upload 'unverified media' across multiple websites, of course trackers will have access to this metadata along with the information they track from you, and then we can build a database and list of those people, we can make one of those black lists that companies can use to deny such people accounts on their service preemptively.

Who needs browser extensions...Browsers could have this tech just built right in. Maybe go a step further, just pre delete any 'potentially misleading' content on every web page before anyone even sees it. I'm sure we could get Microsoft, google, Apple and probably even Mozilla to agree to it. I mean, Mozilla will take like a year and pretend they're against it...but they'll come around eventually.

Oh man there's a world of possibilities out there...so many ways this could be used to censor information across the entire internet.

arxiv.org...

In dealing with altered visual multimedia content, also referred to as fake news, we present a ready-to-deploy extension of the current public key infrastructure (PKI), to provide an endorsement and integrity check platform for newsworthy visual multimedia content. PKI, which is primarily used for Web domain authentication, can directly be utilized with any visual multimedia file. Unlike many other fake news researches that focus on technical multimedia data processing and verification, we enable various news organizations to use our developed program to certify/endorse a multimedia news content when they believe this news piece is truthiness and newsworthy.

Our program digitally signs the multimedia news content with the news organization's private key, and the endorsed news content can be posted not only by the endorser, but also by any other websites. By installing a web browser extension developed by us, an end user can easily verify whether a multimedia news content has been endorsed and by which organization. During verification, our browser extension will present to the end user a floating logo next to the image or video. This logo, in the shape of a shield, will show whether the image has been endorsed, by which news organization, and a few more pieces of essential text information of the news multimedia content. The proposed system can be easily integrated to other closed-web system such as social media networks and easily applied to other non-visual multimedia files.

It still all boils down to what are the facts and who will decide the truth. This could possibly make the Earth flat.

Recently my Fascistbook account was banned (Yeah, I know. I'm in the process of killing the account now) for posting the following quote:

“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

Though often attributed to J. Goebbells, its actual origins are uncertain, but it is true and it is the world we live in. While certainly presenting some challenges, technology has made it a much easier process. We are living under a global, universal Orwellian Ministry of Truth. The Thought Police are real, alive and well, and Thought Crime is a reality.

Ol' George just missed it by about 35 years.

A new internet can be built, like the "dark web" but for open source information sharing instead of black market trading. This is an option we must prepare for.

a reply to: dug88

I gotta say I’m not comfortable with someone else deciding what is the truth.
What could possibly go wrong?🙄

Interesting post. * & F

Browsers, while effective, wouldn't be the most efficient method for implementing this "watchdog" but rather a back-end integration to existing APIs and webservices would.

As an example, can you imagine what would happen if this tech was integrated with Google's Analytics service or one of the many extensions and tools offered by AWS (Amazon)?

originally posted by: beyondknowledge
It still all boils down to what are the facts and who will decide the truth. This could possibly make the Earth flat.

Yeah, you are correct. it is the belief of a person that interprets evidence presented. It takes a lot of research and comparison to come to a proper evaluation. I spent over seven hours investigating a supplement as to it's effect on the body, the supplement is a natural chemical in our bodies and moderates our immune system. No fact checker would spend that much time investigating things, they would just grab some articles to substantuate their claims, probably articles I determined were wrong even though they were written by a doctor. I am sorry, professional people are wrong a lot, lack of evidence does not make something safe or unsafe, and there are side effects to everything....even too much water.

originally posted by: incoserv

Though often attributed to J. Goebbells, its actual origins are uncertain, but it is true and it is the world we live in.

Very apt quote for modern times and think you're right about that - have read that the confusion arose from a misquote in Walter Langer's OSS Hitler report.

Always thought this was a very relevant one from Goebbells though:

What you need to control the media is ostensible diversity that conceals an actual uniformity"

Joseph Goebbels

originally posted by: dug88
Researchers have developed another tool for their arsenal against the 'scourge' of 'fake News' and 'misinformation'. This time they want to build it fundamentally into the internet itself.

Great thread and thought the vid below was a really relevant one when it comes to the recent take over (donors listed at 23:00).





Wasn't surprised to see Bill Gates name pop up and according to a CJR study last year it found that Gates had 'financially motivated' (or bribed) numerous corporate media agencies including the BBC, NBC, Al Jazeera, ProPublica, National Journal, The Guardian, Univision, Medium, The Financial Times, The Atlantic etc. to the tune of over 250 million dollars.

Factchecking platforms like Politifact, USA Today, New Humaniterian etc. are also on the Gates Foundation payroll so probably not very objective.

a reply to: dug88

The 'Which Data Gods Do You Worship?" game.

Un-evolved Humans are great at picking a side and planting a flag to make themselves feel like they have a greater purpose than they really do.

It's all vanity.

Liberals wet dream. Tell people exactly what to think and control anything they can use to form their own opinion.

originally posted by: TzarChasm
A new internet can be built, like the "dark web" but for open source information sharing instead of black market trading. This is an option we must prepare for.

This is already happening with the fediverse, blockchain domains, and sites that operate on the permaweb like Minds.com.

There are strides being made. Couples with cryptocurrency, we are creating a decentralized economy. I'm in decentralized manufacturing and micromanufacturing and I don't take USD.

a reply to: dug88

Or, you could simply assume that what you read on the Internet is likely untrue, and you could investigate for yourself rather than just repost everything that tugs at your heartstrings.

In fact, if the content is highly emotive, you might even consider that a red flag for manipulative BS?

But online proof of identity is a good idea. It will stop people putting credence in anonymous sources with a track record of total fiction, like, for instance, "Q".

a reply to: dug88

Just wait until it all gets tied to your social credit score for your government ran healthcare and your government supplied college education.

a reply to: dug88

E.g. automated censorship, and f*ck the First Amendment....

a reply to: dug88

Remember when you were a kid and some sections of the library were off limits to you, that is what they need to do with the internet.

Fact checking not so much as how and who decides what is fact and what is fake.

By what criteria.

When does this come back to bite us and turn modern whistle blowers into modern heretics.

a reply to: incoserv

That's okay my FarceBook profile got temporarily banned for hate speech, because I was sharing a story about how a lesbian acquaintance of mine got pissy when she told me that she was lesbian because men are all trash and cheaters, and I responded by asking how her cheating ass girlfriend was doing.

I contested it by saying that it was taken out of context, and Facebook decided that it wasn't taken out of context.

we enable various news organizations to use our developed program to certify/endorse a multimedia news content when they believe this news piece is truthiness and newsworthy.

Maybe it's just me but I would think the smart and honest way would be, to not publish untrustworthy news at all?

Journalism is dead.

a reply to: AutomateThis1

So, what do you think that Fascistbook's reaction would be if every person who was ever banned by them said, F off, Fascistbook," and just left the platform.

But, folks will go back with hat in hand, castigated and humble to keep feeding the beast.

a reply to: incoserv

I don't know. It would be nice though. I barely use it except for #posting and trolling. It's not connected to anything else I use, so I'm not too worried about it personally.

The biggest issue to me is that people take their social media presence too seriously. I think that's a bigger issue than Facebook itself.

People care too much about how many likes they get or how many comments they get on photos and stuff.

Facebook wouldn't be what it is today if it weren't for people allowing it.

a reply to: AutomateThis1

The biggest issue to me is that people take their social media presence too seriously. I think that's a bigger issue than Facebook itself.

People care too much about how many likes they get or how many comments they get on photos and stuff.

Hmmm this, but they don't take it seriously enough....or possibly take the wrong things seriously?

They care how many likes they get, but don't care about the fact that everything they say or do on there is linked to a profile that most people fill with more personal information than they'd give to their doctor, which is constantly being sucked up and gathered into large databases where it is then sold freely or given to government agencies.