Friday, May 8, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/05/friday-may-8-2026/

PsyPost: Deepfake videos degrade political reputations even when viewers realize they are fake. “Artificial intelligence can be used to generate deceptive videos that damage a politician’s reputation, even when viewers suspect the footage is fake. A new study published in Communication Research found that these manipulated clips decrease support for targeted candidates. Standard fact-checking […]

Thursday, April 9, 2026

https://activitypub.writeworks.uk/2026/04/thursday-april-9-2026/

Nutrition Insight: UCL scientists’ new tool detects risk of online nutrition misinformation. “Researchers from the University College London (UCL), UK, have developed a Diet-Nutrition Misinformation Risk Assessment Tool (Diet-MisRAT) to detect and evaluate online nutrition misinformation’s potential harm.”

Poynter: Fact-checking has to go where misinformation actually spreads. “In this environment, fact-checking remains indispensable, but its relevance can no longer be measured solely by the publication of articles. If it wants to continue to matter, fact-checking must stop imagining itself only as an editorial product and begin acting as a form of civic infrastructure. This shift begins with […]

Here's a nice *quantitative analysis* of Sir #TrumpVirus' State of the Union...

The qualitative ( #truth - #substance - and actual reflection of the #SOTU) is easy to summarize: 💩

> The Trump ‘Affordability’ Pivot That Never Came

https://open.substack.com/pub/thebulwark/p/the-trump-affordability-pivot-that-never-came-state-of-the-union-inflation-housing-stock-market

> In his record-breakingly-long SOTU, the president spent more time talking about Venezuela than prices.

#Factchecks / #Lies numbers still in process.

#psychopathology #megalomania #GQP #TrumpEpsteinFiles #coverup #tariffs #Epstein

Nature: The science influencers going viral on TikTok to fight misinformation. “Cut to the real [Simon] Clark, who has a PhD in stratospheric dynamics and uses the handle @simonoxfphys, as he dismantles several myths about renewable energy using a deadpan style and a torrent of charts. The video, with almost 180,000 views, is an effort to fight misinformation by meeting people where they are, […]

State of Minnesota: New state webpage separates fraud facts from fiction​. “On Wednesday, Feb. 11, the Minnesota Department of Human Services launched a new fact check webpage to correct misleading information and outright false claims about Medicaid fraud in Minnesota.”

Spotted on LinkedIn: ImageWhisperer. Henk van Ess described it this way on his post: “Upload a suspicious photo and it instantly checks against a global database of debunked images, updated daily. If your photo matches a known fake, it shows you the debunk. It also has a ton of new features to detect photos that are not in that database.”

University of Exeter: Football-style ‘Video Assistant Referee’ tackles climate misinformation. “Available online and as an app, ClimaVAR assesses climate information, flagging content as onside/in game (accurate), or showing it a yellow (misleading/partially incorrect) or red card/offside (false or harmful). It also provides the user with scientific references to where the information was […]