FACT CHECKING METHOD AND SYSTEM UTILIZING SOCIAL NETWORKING INFORMATION

• US 20150248736A1
• Filed: 04/24/2014
• Published: 09/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 02/28/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lucas Myslinski
• Original Assignee: Lucas Myslinski
• Inventors: Myslinski, Lucas J.
• Granted Patent: US 9,972,055 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0488 using a touch-screen or digitiser, e.g. input of commands through traced gestures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/205 Parsing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/01 Social networking

Abstract

A fact checking system utilizes social networking information and analyzes and determines the factual accuracy of information and/or characterizes the information by comparing the information with source information. The social networking fact checking system automatically monitors information, processes the information, fact checks the information and/or provides a status of the information.

Claims

1. A method programmed in a non-transitory memory of a device comprising:

a. automatically analyzing social networking information of a user including;

i. capturing the social networking information from a social networking system; and

ii. parsing the social networking information into parsed segments based on punctuation within and at an end of sentences within the social networking information;

b. receiving suggested social networking information suggested to the user based on contacts of the user and characteristics of the user;

c. approving or disapproving the suggested social networking information as source information;

d. automatically fact checking, using the device, the social networking information to determine a factual accuracy of the social networking information by comparing the parsed segments of the social networking information with the source information, wherein the source information comprises only approved social networking information, wherein the approved social networking information includes user-approved social networking information approved by the user and contact-approved social networking information approved by the contacts of the user, wherein the approved social networking information approved by the user or the contacts of the user comprises visited social networking information visited by the user or the contacts of the user but not disapproved by the user or the contacts of the user, wherein the contacts of the user are the contacts of the user in the social networking system, wherein fact checking includes determining a text string of the social networking information is in the source information, wherein the source information containing the text string of the social networking information is an agreeing source, further wherein fact checking includes determining a number of agreeing highest weighted sources and multiplying the number of agreeing highest weighted sources by a highest weight value, determining the number of agreeing second highest weighted sources and multiplying the number of agreeing second highest weighted sources by a second highest weight value, and continuing through determining the number of agreeing lowest weighted sources and multiplying the number of agreeing lowest weighted sources by a lowest weight value and combining the multiplying results to determine a total value, and upon determining the total value is above a fact check threshold, the automatic fact checking result is true, and upon determining the total value is not above the fact check threshold, the automatic fact checking result is false;

e. automatically presenting a status of the social networking information including changing a color of text of the social networking information in real-time based on the automatic fact checking result from the comparison of the social networking information with the source information.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

determining a first confidence score of the automatic fact checking result based on the number of agreeing sources and a second number of disagreeing sources;

comparing the first confidence score of the automatic fact checking result with a confidence threshold;

fact checking using crowdsourced data to generate a crowdsourced result upon determining the automatic fact checking does not return the automatic fact checking result with the first confidence score above the confidence threshold;

comparing the first confidence score of the automatic fact checking result and a second confidence score of the crowdsourced result; and

utilizing the result with a higher confidence score as the status of the social networking information.

3. The method of claim 1 further comprising

automatically sending the status of the social networking information to contacts of the user, wherein only certain types of fact check statuses are automatically sent to the contacts, wherein the certain types are limited to lies and misinformation;

and

automatically sending additional information with the status to provide context for the social networking information, wherein the additional information includes a snippet of original content.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

approving information as the source information by microblogging a link to the information including a hashtag within a microblog, the hashtag indicating approval or disapproval of the information.

5. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

approving information as the approved social networking information by the user or the contacts of the user visiting the information using a browser but not disapproving the information;

determining the approved social networking information is linked to additional sources with a same reliability rating as the approved social networking information; and

automatically approving the additional sources as the approved social networking information.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the approved social networking information approved by the user or the contacts of the user comprises the visited social networking information visited by the user or the contacts of the user while logged in to the social networking system.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving approvals and disapprovals of information as the source information, wherein the user and the contacts of the user are able to approve and disapprove the information as the source information; and

resolving a conflict as to whether the information is approved or disapproved by using an approval or disapproval choice of a person, who approved or disapproved the information, with a highest validity rating to determine whether the information is approved or disapproved, wherein the highest validity rating is based on fact checking results of comments by the user and the contacts of the user.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising:

calculating a base validity rating for each user;

calculating contact validity ratings for contacts of each user; and

combining the base validity rating and the contact validity ratings to generate a final validity rating for each user, wherein the contact validity ratings for the contacts are weighted depending on the degree of separation from the user, wherein the highest validity rating is determined from the final validity rating for each user.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

receiving approvals and disapprovals of information as the source information, wherein the user and the contacts of the user are able to approve and disapprove the information as the source information; and

resolving a conflict as to whether the information is approved or disapproved, wherein multiple users approve and disapprove the information, by comparing a first tally of approvals of the information with a second tally of disapprovals of the information, and approving the information upon determining the first tally is greater than the second tally, and disapproving the information upon determining the first tally is not greater than the second tally.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

automatically sharing sources with contacts of the user using social networking immediately after the user approves the sources; and

enabling the contacts to approve or disapprove some or all of the sources shared by the user by selecting approve or disapprove.

14. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

automatically determining the user is registering for a second social networking system; and

automatically verifying an identity of the user using fact checking, wherein the social networking information is the identity of the user.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

automatically determining the user is attempting to connect with a second user on the social networking system, wherein the social networking information is a user communication to the second user; and

automatically verifying the user and the second user using fact checking.

16. The method of claim 1 further comprising:

automatically detecting a same phrase provided by the user and other users participating on the social networking system, wherein the social networking information includes the same phrase; and

automatically connecting the user and the other users based on the same phrase detected, wherein the same phrase detected is not factually accurate as determined by the fact checking.

17. The method of claim 14 wherein comparing the social networking information with source information further includes comparing an image from a current video scan of the user with a past photograph of the user to determine any factual inaccuracies in the current video scan.

18. The method of claim 16 further comprising:

storing fact checked social networking information determined to be not factually accurate and a username of the user corresponding to the fact checked social networking information in a database; and

matching the fact checked social networking information among users.

7. (canceled)

12. (canceled)

13. (canceled)

19. (canceled)

20. (canceled)

21. (canceled)

22. (canceled)

23. A method programmed in a non-transitory memory of a device comprising:

a. automatically analyzing social networking information of a user including;

i. capturing the social networking information from a social networking system; and

ii. parsing the social networking information into parsed segments based on punctuation within and at an end of sentences within the social networking information;

b. approving information as approved social networking information by the user or contacts of the user visiting the information using a browser but not disapproving the information;

c. determining the approved social networking information is linked to additional sources with a same reliability rating as the approved social networking information;

d. automatically approving the additional sources as the approved social networking information;

e. automatically fact checking, using the device, the social networking information to determine a factual accuracy of the social networking information by comparing the parsed segments of the social networking information with source information, wherein the source information comprises only the approved social networking information, wherein the approved social networking information includes user-approved social networking information approved by the user and contact-approved social networking information approved by contacts of the user, wherein the approved social networking information approved by the user or the contacts of the user comprises visited social networking information visited by the user or the contacts of the user but not disapproved by the user or the contacts of the user, wherein the contacts of the user are the contacts of the user in the social networking system, wherein fact checking includes determining a text string of the social networking information is in the source information, wherein the source information containing the text string of the social networking information is an agreeing source, further wherein fact checking includes determining a number of agreeing highest weighted sources and multiplying the number of agreeing highest weighted sources by a highest weight value, determining the number of agreeing second highest weighted sources and multiplying the number of agreeing second highest weighted sources by a second highest weight value, and continuing through determining the number of agreeing lowest weighted sources and multiplying the number of agreeing lowest weighted sources by a lowest weight value and combining the multiplying results to determine a total value, and upon determining the total value is above a fact check threshold, the automatic fact checking result is true, and upon determining the total value is not above the fact check threshold, the automatic fact checking result is false; and

f. automatically presenting a status of the social networking information including changing a color of text of the social networking information in real-time based on the automatic fact checking result from the comparison of the social networking information with the source information.

24. A method programmed in a non-transitory memory of a device comprising:

a. automatically analyzing social networking information of a user including;

i. capturing the social networking information from a social networking system; and

ii. parsing the social networking information into parsed segments based on punctuation within and at an end of sentences within the social networking information;

b. receiving approvals and disapprovals of information as source information, wherein the user and contacts of the user are able to approve and disapprove the information as the source information;

c. resolving a conflict as to whether the information is approved or disapproved by using an approval or disapproval choice of a person, who approved or disapproved the information, with a highest validity rating to determine whether the information is approved or disapproved, wherein the highest validity rating is based on fact checking results of comments by the user and the contacts of the user;

d. automatically fact checking, using the device, the social networking information to determine a factual accuracy of the social networking information by comparing the parsed segments of the social networking information with the source information, wherein the source information comprises only approved social networking information, wherein the approved social networking information includes user-approved social networking information approved by the user and contact-approved social networking information approved by the contacts of the user, wherein the approved social networking information approved by the user or the contacts of the user comprises visited social networking information visited by the user or the contacts of the user but not disapproved by the user or the contacts of the user, wherein the contacts of the user are the contacts of the user in the social networking system, wherein fact checking includes determining a text string of the social networking information is in the source information, wherein the source information containing the text string of the social networking information is an agreeing source, further wherein fact checking includes determining a number of agreeing highest weighted sources and multiplying the number of agreeing highest weighted sources by a highest weight value, determining the number of agreeing second highest weighted sources and multiplying the number of agreeing second highest weighted sources by a second highest weight value, and continuing through determining the number of agreeing lowest weighted sources and multiplying the number of agreeing lowest weighted sources by a lowest weight value and combining the multiplying results to determine a total value, and upon determining the total value is above a fact check threshold, the automatic fact checking result is true, and upon determining the total value is not above the fact check threshold, the automatic fact checking result is false;

e. automatically presenting a status of the social networking information including changing a color of text of the social networking information in real-time based on the automatic fact checking result from the comparison of the social networking information with the source information; and

f. automatically coding the automatic fact checking result into a web page of the social networking system.