Ontotext is proud to support the ongoing ‘Hack the News’ Datathon – Data Science Society’s international hackathon aimed at finding data analysis and semantic technology solutions to identifying fake news, propaganda and disinformation.
The international hackathon running between January 21 and 29, 2019 is challenging data experts and enthusiasts to apply natural language processing (NLP) and text mining approaches to tackle the new scourge of today’s media world – fake news.
The hackathon’s organizers, as well as Ontotext, believe that early detection of fake news is crucial to fighting manipulation in media and helping users check the veracity of the news they read.
The participants will be challenged to develop a machine learning (ML) model for identifying propaganda with the use of their preferred data analysis methods and tools.
The case of the ‘Hack the News’ Datathon has three tasks in increasing difficulty – Propaganda detection at the article level (PAL), Propaganda detection at the sentence level (PSL) and Propaganda type recognition (PTR). The finalists will present their solutions to the case to a jury that will announce the winners on January 29.
Ontotext has been working for years to develop solutions that could help users check the veracity of the news they read online. Ontotext took part in the EU-funded PHEME project (Computing Veracity Across Media, Languages, and Social Networks), which focused on developing a smart way to alert users to rumors and misinformation.
Most recently, Ontotext has started working on another such project, WeVerify (Wider and Enhanced Verification for You). Ontotext will lead the work on using blockchain technology to confirm the authenticity of judgment calls by journalists when they perform data verification and expose fake news.
Learn more about Ontotext Technology Solutions.
For more information, contact Doug Kimball, Chief Marketing Officer at Ontotext