A 20-year-old student from the computer department of the University of Macedonia has created a program that detects fake news on the internet, an Athens News Agency report says.
Valentinos Tzekas from Larissa created a program with several parameters and a separate algorithm that quickly detects fake news in cyberspace.
The next step for Tzekas is to take his idea to a large social networking company to put into effect the program that would separate false from real news on the internet.
In the next few months the Larissa student is expected to appear in the European Parliament to present his program that would bring a solution to such a sensitive issue without censorship.
Tzekas’ patent comes after a bill went into effect in Germany that gives the right to various platforms to remove articles that are unfounded.
“This is something that makes me feel honored and basically rewards my efforts and sacrifices. My idea is that it will save many people from false news,” Tzekas told ANA.
“The bad thing is that people tend to believe everything they read on the internet. This is why I decided to do something to block the false news,” he said.
The 20-year-old student also believes that online giants such as Google and Facebook — that throw billions of dollars toward tackling the issue — would incorporate his program. “I would like to see a big company that has the potential to put a stop to false news of the internet to buy it,” he said.
“This is a global innovation. The FightHoax.com algorithm has the ability to “scan” in seconds any kind of information written on the internet, deciding whether it is a misleading news story or real news,” Tzekas said.
“(FightHoax) is a multi-tool that analyzes news articles and shows if they can be trusted. It can help journalists and everyday people analyze the news they are reading. With the help of search engines, the tool can perform bulk scans across the internet, track the news and classify them,” Tzekas explained.
The idea for the news scan came to Tzekas during the last U.S. election campaign. “All of a sudden, there were news about Trump and other candidates that were not real… I saw there [was] a lot of false news, so I did not know what the truth is. At that time, I had read an article in Wired magazine about how a student was making thousands of dollars each month by publishing fake news. And this has resulted in thousands of clicks, which were translated into money for him. The student quit his studies because he was making thousands of euros,” he said.
Source: greece.greekreporter.com