Students show an open mind

A TEAM of college students has come up with an internet browser plug-in that identifies fake and biased news stories and then steers the user to alternative articles.

“Open Mind” was created this month as an extension for Google’s Chrome browser during a problem-solving competition known as a hackathon at Yale University. The fourmember team, comprised of students from Yale, the California Institute of Technology and Waterloo University in Ontario, won a challenge from Yale’s Poynter Fellowship in Journalism to find a way to combat fake news. Their plugin uses sentiment analysis technology to analyse articles for bias. It also can show a reader whether their news browsing history is balanced or not.

The group will be meeting this spring with members of Congress to discuss their creation.