Verific.AI application: Automated fact-checking in Brazilian 2018 general elections

Abstract

The increasingly hybrid relationship between consumption and production, the post-truth context, and the disinformation ecosystem have all caused tensions in journalism. Creating false news and spreading it across social networks has become common practice. This article introduces the development, testing and data analysis from the Verific.ai application prototype, an automated tool for checking news links on the Android operating system. This application uses data mining for defining the criteria for truthful and false news in the digital environment. The data are presented in the light of the descriptive exploratory analysis, based on tests conducted during the 2018 Brazilian elections. Through this it was possible to define and apply criteria to quickly reveal any potentially false content, while also showing the type of online news content viewed unfavorably by the consuming public.