According to Factland Dao, how to fight fake news with blockchain technology
What is “truth” and what is “reality”? While the question may seem silly, the answer is obvious, the fact of the matter (pun intended) is that what is considered right or true can vary greatly from person to person. Most of the world lives in increasingly divided and fragmented societies where two people may not agree on everything, including what is fake news and what is real news. Add social media to the mix, and the idea that there is one universal source of truth becomes even more unbelievable.
Historically, fact-finders have been seen as unbiased mediators to get down to the nitty-gritty of fact and fiction. Websites like Snopes try to dissect the truth behind current events, and newsrooms hire staff whose job it is to make sure their stories are straight. But fact-checkers themselves — and the organizations they work for — harbor biases that can influence their process or help them decide which cases to investigate and which to leave alone.
In episode 28 of the Agenda podcast, hosts Jonathan DeYoung and Ray Salmond talk to Evan Hansen, co-founder and CEO of Factland DAO, about how blockchain technology is an unexpected power multiplier and enabler for fact-checking. Hansen is a media veteran who turned to Web3 to start a decentralized independent organization frustrated by the state of disinformation.
Decentralized, DAO-based fact-checking approach
Factland is still in beta mode, which at the time of writing, Hansen described as “currently a DAO in name only.” Nowadays, anyone can make any claim they want, others can provide evidence of whether it's true or false, and then a random panel of judges vote to decide the final outcome – the results are as follows. It is time-stamped and stored on an Internet computer.
Once the DAO and related decentralized applications are officially launched, the expanded Web3 elements will kick in. Anyone can still submit claims, and referees will remain random, but those referees will receive FACT tokens for their services. Other DAO members can also submit their own FACT tokens for judgments they believe will win. Once the verdict is chosen, stakeholders who pledge to the winning side divide the pool of accumulated tokens. Individuals who provide the most convincing evidence will also be rewarded with FACT tokens.
“Nowadays, our community is relatively small, and the judges are small. But in theory, it could be scaled up to a point where 10,000 jurors would be weighing a lot of facts and making a decision that would hopefully have the general consensus of the community.
What's wrong with the current situation?
According to Hanson, having a large number of random judges is more effective and less biased in determining what is true and what is false than relying on a more traditional approach. According to DeYoung and Salmond, “numerous other studies” have shown that “random people perform as well or better than experts if they are adequately helped to decide.”
This contrasts with the traditional fact-checking model, where a handful of appointed “experts” in newsrooms or other agencies decide what is true and what is false. The problem with this, according to Hans, is that “they often have agendas, and they're politically biased, and because they have financial resources, they can create problems with the outcome or the political discourse they want to support or the situation they're able to support.” weaken”
“We wanted to scale this properly, you need an army of people who can do that. And then to do it in a way that overcomes some of these internal questions about the bias of the fact-checking enterprise, you need to do it in a decentralized way — it allows all voices to come forward and then be kind.” As for the decision, is this a fair question? Should we be concerned about this? But a certain group of gatekeepers did not.
To hear more from Hansen's conversation with The Agenda — including the current state of misinformation, the positives and negatives of social media, and whether or not there is “truth” in media — listen to the full episode on Cointelegraph's Podcasts page, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. And don't forget to check out Cointelegraph's full lineup of other shows!
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