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Caught in the act
Before a speaker can even finish their sentence, InTruth verifies the data. Here is how one college student’s venture is bringing real-time reality back to live news
By Farhaan Tipu
“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.”
— Jonathan Swift
This statement describes perfectly the process of information exchange on the political podium. The leader stands in front of the mic, utters a bold statement, and wins. This sound byte becomes trending and is shared millions of times within minutes. While the dedicated newsroom fact-checkers try to publish the analysis of this claim days later, people believe it as a truth already. The spin wins its lap before the truth even started its race.
But there is something else in the picture. In addition to you watching the live stream, there is also a digital assistant. Right before the speaker finishes his statement, you get a message on your screen. And it is not only telling you that the claim was exaggerated but also shows the primary sources and data related to this claim. And while the audience in the video is clapping at this person, you already have the full picture of the reality.
This little trick is called InTruth, a cool little tool created by a college student, which helps to reduce the time interval between public claim and fact-checking.
In the modern culture of immediate reaction, one short clip can become a subject for discussion all day. Although the traditional fact-checking is crucial, it is too late to do it due to the rapid pace of media consumption. InTruth was created to fix this. It runs a quick loop of verification right in your browser during the online speech of any public figure.
While listening to the speech, this tool identifies the claims (economic statistics, historical data, policies’ record), cross-checks it with the reliable sources all around the globe, checks the information and provides you with the verdict right in front of your eyes, while the speaker is yet to finish his thought.
What is important about this innovation is the change in dynamics between the speaker and the viewer. InTruth gives the power to the viewer to be able to analyze what is being said, just in time.
In the age of the fast and complicated public discussion, InTruth shows the new way of news consumption.
