Five European universities are working on a social media lie detector in an attempt to verify online rumors. The technology developed in the wake of the London riots is set to help not only journalists and the private sector, but also governments.

Researchers, led by Sheffield University in England, are cooperating on the system, which could automatically ascertain if a rumor can be verified and whether it originates from a reliable source. It will attempt to filter reliable factual information from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook.

The project called PHEME is being funded by the European Union and has already been in development for three years. It is named after the Greek mythological character of Pheme, who was famed for spreading rumors.

The system will classify online rumors into four different types, the group said in their press release:

- Speculation, if interest rates might rise

- Controversy, as over the possible dangers of the MMR vaccine

- Disinformation, where a rumor is spread unwittingly

- Misinformation, where there is malicious intent to deceive

The project originated from research about the use of social media in the London riots of 2011.

The system will try and use three different factors to establish the accuracy of a nugget of information. It will examine the information itself (lexical, syntactic and semantic), and then cross-reference the information with a trust worthy data source and the dissemination of information.

It will also attempt to examine the background and history of a social media account to see if an account has been set up just to spread rumors.

However, concerns have already been voiced over the program, as one of the target consumers may be governments. Steven Poole in an opinion piece for the Guardian points out that the system and even the idea is not fool proof.

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