pheme20140613Lie Detector Pheme

You won’t get jail time for spreading rumors on Facebook or Twitter, but Pheme will be able to detect your lie.

The Internet is an endless source of information. If you take enough time to browse through it, you’ll find anything from “100% working” cures for almost any illness, easy weight loss diets and even the secret key to happiness. But think again. If it was that easy, wouldn’t we all be happy, healthy millionaires?

Whether we’re talking about blogs, social media or casino gambling news sites, it’s hard to tell which ones you can really trust. You might remember a shocking article about how a shark swam through the streets of New Jersey during Hurricane Sandy, a baby mermaid being born or snakes invading a casino in the Philippines. None of these things actually happened.

Tired of seeing made-up stories sold as news, a group of researchers funded by the EU started working on a lie detector for social media channels.

Introducing Pheme

Named after a Greek mythological figure described by Wikipedia as “a tremendous gossip” who spread “scandalous rumors”, the new system will gather a variety of data in order to establish how likely it really is.

Pheme is designed to analyze the information from different sources – including individual journalists and news outlets, so-called experts and eyewitnesses, as well as bots – while at the same time taking into account the histories of social-media accounts. It is said that the system will detect people who spread false rumors and then show the evolution of the topic on social networks.

The lesson here is: don’t believe everything you read on the Internet and get your blackjack tips from reliable sources. We hear BlackjackChamp is a good one.