Join us for an evening of pizza and lies

Where does so-called “fake news” come from? What are the sources for misinformation online?

The problem of untrustworthy stories masquerading as news is plaguing civil society organisations and news media all over the world. Whether it’s lies on Facebook that go viral, propaganda disguised as Tweets or plain old scammers with clickbait sites looking to cash in on ad revenue, it’s harder than ever to separate fact from fiction.

Here in South Africa, Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) has been working for 25 years to help people critically engage with what they read, see and hear online and off, and regularly calls media to account. For the last year, MMA has been working on a set of tools to help separate “the dope from the dodgy” when it comes to what you read online, building a database of trustworthy and untrustworthy sources.

This database currently powers it’s own browser add-on, KnowNews, and is being opened up for developers and researchers to access and help in the fight for truth.

Cataloguing dodgy news sources is a task that will never be complete, but Hacks/Hackers Johannesburg and JAMLAB want to help. We’re inviting members to an evening of pizza and lies, where you’ll learn more about MMA’s work and how to use it’s database of deception. Then we’ll help to populate it in a sprint session, scouring sites for insalubrious stuff.

Want to find out more and join us in this truth hack? Join HHJHB, JAMLAB and MMA at the Tshimologong Precinct in Braamfontein on 10 April for pizza and lies.

Sign up here: https://bit.ly/HH_Africa