Chake Fake News platform created to combat viral disinformation

Asunción, Paraguay.- Chake Fake News is an initiative created to fight against disinformation, through a digital platform in which news verified by university students about information circulating on the internet about the Coronavirus in Paraguay is published. The project is part of the second phase of this proposal promoted by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) Group, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the Ministry of Information and Communication Technologies (MITIC ).

The digital platform is ONLIINE at www.chakefakenews.com and will remain active for four weeks. Under the guidance of an editor, publications with verified content made by students of the Communication Sciences career of the Catholic University of Asunción (UCA), the Autonomous University of Asunción (UAA), the American University (UA) are made available. ) and the National University of Asunción (UNA), who participated, in a first phase, in a course to check misinformation content.

A total of 47 university students participated, since the end of August, in the course to combat viral disinformation, taught by journalists from the digital medium Chequeado, from Argentina, dedicated to fact-checking or “fact-checking”. The academic space included tools and techniques to identify suspicious content circulating on social networks, verify whether they were true or false, and write notes that maximize the chances of convincing those who believed in disinformation. The course has been developed for 5 weeks, 100% virtual, ending on Friday, September 25.

The second phase of the program, which will be entirely practical, will seek that students demonstrate the knowledge acquired during the academic proposal and carry out the news check in real time. It will be sought that they can make use of the tools and techniques learned to identify suspicious content that circulates on social networks.

Chake Fake News is an initiative that seeks to combat misinformation and prevent the spread of false news, especially those that could threaten the life or health of people during the pandemic.