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Are you an engineer with a social conscience? I need your help!

We have a really big problem here in the UK. The bias in mainstream media is unprecedented. COVID has highlighted the fact that we no longer have an honest news platform for the masses - I know not news right?

I have the scope, the idea, the product design chops but no engineering expertise. I wondered if anyone has the same experience of their media and would like to have a stab at redressing the balance?

It isn't a paid gig but there are several ways to monetise the platform. I recently set up a doomed Kickstarter which had lofty ambitions but I think a simple MVP could test the water and get the ball rolling.

The way I propose to tackle this is to provide a platform to help domain experts easily challenge and peer review the news. Which is in turn presented to users in way that they can discuss and act on the information. I've coined the term FACTIVISM.

So what is FACTIVISM?
FACTIVISIM is a digital ecosystem designed to challenge bias, find the facts and act on the truth. There are two steps to take:

The first is to help identify journalism at the source that may show bias or lack any factual information or credible data.

The second is to offer a platform where people can read professional peer reviews of the news, find stories with other perspectives and qualified sources.

Within FACTIVISM you can help by becoming either a donor through Patreon a reader or a writer.

The FACTIVISM ecosystem is made up of:
a browser plugin powered with AI to enable you to identify bias
a peer review system to link from existing MSM articles
a publishing platform to deliver stories from professionals and challenge mainstream media (MSM)

I'm pretty sure this can all be done with existing technology like Discourse, Mastodon, Loomio or even a version of IndieHackers but I need someone who can steer and build the tech.

Cheers

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    Thoughts; How will you ensure the experts aren't biased or your system if becomes popular is not infiltrated by such? How does this differ from fullfact? Wouldn't effort be better placed educating people to check their news source / credibility? Maybe a simple rating per news source for "factualness" could work?

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      Having users login with a professional credential like LinkedIn to post may help legitimacy. Posting under their own name and also having to use sources in articles may also help but you will never completely eradicate attempts to corrupt a system.

      Full fact is a right wing funded propaganda tool if you look closely and trace the investment and ownership!

      Part of my overall pitch for Kickstarter was a browser plugin that uses a combination of human and AI input to display an articles bias. From this plug-in you could post a reply to the article on Factivism if you were a "writer" ie you were logged into Factivism and had a good trust rating. Trust ratings could use a combination of metrics to arrive at a score.

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    UK news was broken long, long, long before Covid-19 came a long. It is heavily biased towards a certain political party and/or ideology.

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