Social media fact checking method and system

• US 8,458,046 B2
• Filed: 11/06/2012
• Issued: 06/04/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucas Myslinski
• Inventors: Myslinski, Lucas J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Airapetian, Mila
• Application Number:
  US13/669,819
• Publication Number:
  US 20130060860A1
• Time in Patent Office: 210 Days
• Field of Search: 705/26.1
• US Class Current: 705/26.1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/583 using metadata automatically derived from the content
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 16/7837 using objects detected or recognised in the video content
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/10 Office automation; Time management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/018 Certifying business or products
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0625 Directed, with specific intent or strategy
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/02 using automatic reactions or user delegation, e.g. automatic replies or chatbot-generated messages
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/063 Content adaptation, e.g. replacement of unsuitable content
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 51/52 for supporting social networking services
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/258 Client or end-user data management, e.g. managing client capabilities, user preferences or demographics, processing of multiple end-users preferences to derive collaborative data arrangements for services using the result on the distributing side of broadcast systems H04H60/66; profiles in network data switching protocols H04L67/30

Abstract

A fact checking system verifies the correctness of information and/or characterizes the information by comparing the information with one or more sources. The fact checking system automatically monitors, processes, fact checks information and indicates a status of the information.

Claims

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

a. automatically monitoring social media content;

b. automatically fact checking the social media content with the device by comparing the social media content with source information to determine the factual accuracy of the social media content;

c. automatically indicating a status of the social media content in real-time based on a result of the comparison of the social media content with the source information; and

d. detecting bias of the social media content wherein a data structure stores biased information and biased entities to be used for determining the bias.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising automatically processing the social media content including parsing the social media content into fact checkable portions.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein fact checking utilizes a plurality of sources, and each source of the plurality of sources has a reliability rating based on the accuracy of the information within each source of the plurality of sources, wherein the accuracy is determined based on previous fact checking results, wherein a first source with a first reliability rating is given more weight during fact checking than a second source with a second reliability rating lower than the first reliability rating, wherein each source of the plurality of sources with the reliability rating below a threshold is not used in fact checking.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein the threshold is a user-specified threshold.

5. The method of claim 3 wherein the reliability rating is generated using a combination of user-generated ratings and computer-generated ratings.

6. The method of claim 1 further comprising indicating supplemental information including an importance rating indicating an importance of the social media content to a user wherein the importance rating is determined by:

i. classifying the social media content into a classification;

ii. comparing the classification with an importance selection; and

iii. generating the importance rating based on the comparison of the classification and the importance selection.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein fact checking includes analyzing causation within the social media content, further wherein the causation is determined by logical flaws within the social media content.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying an advertisement based on the social media content.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying an advertisement opposing the social media content.

10. The method of claim 1 further comprising automatically sending the result to a second device.

11. The method of claim 1 wherein the source information is ranked by popularity, and fact checking utilizes a most popular source information first and less popular source information in a descending order.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein fact checking is performed using cloud computing.

13. The method of claim 1 further comprising classifying the social media content in a political classification.

14. The method of claim 1 wherein the social media content comprises a subjective statement, and fact checking the subjective statement includes comparing the subjective statement with the source information including comparing objective information related to the subjective statement with the source information to generate the result.

15. The method of claim 1 further comprising receiving flagging information, wherein fact checking includes fact checking a flagged social media content.

16. The method of claim 1 wherein fact checking utilizes previously stored fact check results.

17. The method of claim 1 wherein sources of the source information are clustered to enable selecting of a cluster of sources to be used for fact checking.

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

a. automatically monitoring social media content with the device;

b. automatically indicating a status of the social media content in real-time based on a result of a fact checking comparison of the social media content with source information to determine the factual accuracy of the social media content; and

c. displaying an advertisement opposing the social media content.

19. A device comprising:

a. a memory for storing an application for automatically performing the following steps;

i. monitoring social media content;

ii. processing the social media content including parsing the social media content into fact checkable portions;

iii. fact checking the fact checkable portions by comparing the fact checkable portions with source information to determine the factual accuracy of the fact checkable portions, wherein the social media content comprises a subjective statement, and fact checking the subjective statement includes comparing the subjective statement with the source information including comparing objective information related to the subjective statement with the source information to generate a result; and

iv. indicating a status of the social media content in real-time based on the result of the comparison of the fact checkable portions with the source information; and

b. a processor for processing the application.

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

a. automatically monitoring social media content;

b. receiving flagging information;

c. automatically fact checking the social media content with the device by comparing the social media content with source information to determine the factual accuracy of the social media content, wherein fact checking includes fact checking flagged social media content;

d. automatically indicating a status of the social media content in real-time based on a result of the comparison of the social media content with the source information; and

e. detecting bias of the social media content wherein a data structure stores biased information and biased entities to be used for determining the bias.