Connect with us

Tech

Twitter acquires AI start up to fight fake news

Published

on

Twitter acquires AI start up to fight fake news

Twitter has acquired the technology startup Fabula AI, which uses machine learning to help detect the spread of misinformation online.

This is part of Twitter’s strategy to rein in some of the fake news content that appears across its channels.

Fabula AI is a London-based company which has been developing algorithms and machine learning to identify ‘fake news’ (as in news content that either is not real, seeks to mislead or at least hasn’t been verified). Fake news can be deliberately or accidentally circulated.

With deliberate circulation there is often an intent, normally originating from the perpetrator, to distort or to influence events. With accidental ‘fake news’, this refers to stories that may have some truth to them, but they are not completely accurate.

Read also: US to investigate Amazon, Apple, Facebook & Google over market power misuse

Twitter has indicated that it is concerned about some of the fake news that appears on its platform. In May 2019, the company announced that it was about to conduct research into how white nationalists and white supremacists use the website, due to concerns over fake news from fascist organizations being spread over the Twitter network.

Twitter CTO Parag Agrawal said that the acquisition “will be a key driver as we work to help people feel safe on Twitter and help them see relevant information… we will be able to improve the health of the conversation, as well as products including the timeline, recommendations, the explore tab and the onboarding experience.”

Fabula AI uses graph deep learning to detect network manipulation. Graph deep learning is a relatively new technique for applying machine learning techniques to network-structured data.

The approach can readily analyze very large and complex datasets to describe relations and interactions, and also to pinpoint signals. This approach provides a foundation for detecting fake news.

 

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now