Avoid Fake News by Installing B.S. Detector Plugin

In my previous article on social media and propaganda, I had discussed in detail how social media platform Facebook was criticized by users for promoting fake news content on its website. It became mired in controversy after some users complained that fake news changed the outcome of the US election.

Technologist Daniel Sieradski has developed a plug-in - known as BS Detector - that flags up "questionable" websites on Facebook and Twitter.

The plug-in has appeared in dozens of news feeds and it appears that Facebook is currently blocking links to the site.

BS Detector uses a list of fake news sources as its reference point. It can easily be added to Chrome and Mozilla browsers and it flags a false story with a red banner reading: "This website is considered a questionable source."

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It has had over 25,000 installs since launch.

Social media has largely replaced the traditional media and people these days are relying on news content which is generated on Facebook and Twitter.

According to Daniel Sieradski, B.S. Detector is a rejoinder to Mark Zuckerberg’s dubious claims that Facebook is unable to substantively address the proliferation of fake news on its platform. B.S. Detector searches all links on a given webpage for references to unreliable sources, checking against a manually compiled list of domains.

However, B.S. Detector is a proof-of-concept and according to their website they are actively reviewing this dataset, categorizing entries, and removing misidentified domains.