A brand new search engine called Hoaxy, which aims to track the spread of fake news, is now available in beta. The search engine was created by Indiana University’s Network Science Institute and its Center for Complex Networks and System Research.
Hoaxy indexes content from what are said to be 132 sites known for producing fake news. The search engine is capable of creating visual representations of how stories from these sites spread across social media.
Simply search for a subject using Hoaxy and it will return suspected fake news stories related to that search term. This is an efficient way to confirm the validity of a story. For example, if you’re suspicious of a news story being false, you can look up the subject in Hoaxy and see if it returns some of the stories you’ve been reading.
Hoaxy is not perfect and has its flaws. For example, it only tracks the spread of news on Twitter, which is less than ideal considering Facebook has been heavily criticized for its spread of fake news of late.
However, the search engine just launched today and is still in beta. As it develops it could end up being a valuable took for vetting news stories.
Courtesy of SearchEngineJournal
