LIMITS AND RISKS OF USING AI FOR FACT-CHECKING: QUESTIONS OF EFFECTIVENESS AND LEGALITY OF AI-DRIVEN DISINFORMATION DETECTION AND MODERATION. EDMO workshop. By Kalina Bontcheva

1. LIMITS AND RISKS OF USING AI FOR FACT-CHECKING:
QUESTIONS OF EFFECTIVENESS AND LEGALITY OF AI-DRIVEN
DISINFORMATION DETECTION AND MODERATION
EDMO workshop, 17 February 2021
Kalina Bontcheva
K.Bontcheva@sheffield.ac.uk
@kbontcheva

2. WeVerify: AI Tools for Content Verification
➢ Key is not only whether a claim true or false, but also:
• Who is spreading it?
• Are people believing it?
• Stance: support, deny, question, comment
• Do we need to debunk it or not?
➢ Assist journalists through automated analysis embedded in user-friendly tools
➢ WeVerify Browser Plugin (+40k users); DBKF; TrulyMedia
www.weverify.eu
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3. TRULY MEDIA: EDMO’S TECHNOLOGICAL PLATFORM
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4. FREELY AVAILABLE INVID-WEVERIFY VERIFICATION PLUG-IN
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5. 5
Can fact-checkers trust reverse image search?
Credit: Denis Teyssou (AFP)

6. FINDING ALREADY DEBUNKED CONTENT
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https://www.snopes.com/fact-check
/osama-death-photos/

7. WEVERIFY: WISDOM OF THE CROWD + SPEED OF AI
ARE PEOPLE BELIEVING THE
MISINFO?

8. BALANCING ACT: ALGORITHMS AND FOE
Bias; errors; need continuous update; minority languages suffer

9. The Pandemic Era of Automated Moderation
➢ With COVID-19 internet communications platforms increased reliance on
automation
➢ Risks:
• Fully automated solutions pose a danger to FoE
• Need of effective appeal process
• Need for human oversight/curation
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10. Balancing Act: Selected Recommendations
➢ 23-step Freedom of Expression Assessment Framework of disinfo responses
➢ Focus on curation to ensure that users can easily access journalism as verified
information shared in the public interest and avoid over reliance on automation
➢ Work to boost the visibility of credible news content and financially compensate
news producers
➢ Significantly improve technological abilities to detect and limit the circulation
and amplification of false and misleading content, while respecting FoE
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11. Balancing Act: Selected Recommendations (2)
➢ Implement transparency of AI decision making, especially on platforms where it
is used for content moderation
➢ Promote privacy-preserving, equitable access to key data from internet
communications companies, to enable algo-transparency
➢ Support transparent social media councils and/or national ombuds facilities
• Help give users recourse to independent arbitration and appeals against
moderation steps perceived to be unfair
➢ Implement responses on a global scale, rather than being limited to certain
countries
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12. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
www.weverify.eu
@WeVerify
Thanks to the WeVerify team!