FACT CHAMPION - Fact-checker, Activist, and Academic Collaboration Tools: Combatting Hate & Abuse towards Minorities as well as Misinformation & Propaganda In Online Networks

Meedan, Inc., San Francisco CA

Investigators

Abstract

Fact-checker, Academic, and Community Collaboration Tools: Combating Hate, Abuse, and Misinformation with Minority-led Partnerships (FACT CHAMP) will build the tools and infrastructure to enable state-of-the-art research and practice to curb misinformation online. Our platform, FACT, will streamline and facilitate collaboration of fact-checkers, NGOs, researchers, and community leaders—particularly those from minority groups. FACT will allow practitioners and community leaders to share misinformation data and research challenges securely with academics. At the same time it will also allow academic solutions to be more easily used in practice.  FACT CHAMP includes a convergence of social science and computer science research and a range of non-profit, startup, industry, and academic partners. We will conduct in-depth ethnographic-inspired research in close partnership with Asian American and Pacific Islander communities where racially-targeted misinformation and hate speech have surged in the wake of COVID-19. We will also conduct three proof-of-concept activities to understand how we can best enable deep and meaningful collaboration between researchers, fact-checkers, and community leaders to combat hate, abuse, and misinformation. Through these activities, we will advance research on detection of controversy and hateful content, improve our understanding of hate speech and misinformation, and, most importantly, iteratively develop new tools and adapt existing ones to create collaboration infrastructure aligned with the needs of our stakeholders.