A baby mermaid (美人鱼) was just born in Finland; Justin Bieber is getting married; iPhone 6 is going to be released this year… We read rumors every day on the Internet. With the help of social media, rumors — no matter whether they are true or false — spread like wildfire, and sometimes we can’t be sure what to believe.
Now, an international group of researchers might be able to make it easier for us. They are working on a lie detector that could separate online truth from lies, Discovery News reported.
Named after the Greek goddess Pheme, famed for spreading bad rumors, the system is far from a traditional lie detector, which works by attaching a machine to a potential liar. Instead, Pheme analyzes the rumor directly.
When a rumor comes out, on a micro blog, for example, Pheme can trace the source of information to see if it was released by reliable sources like experts or news agencies. If it wasn’t, Pheme then examines the history and background of the account to identify whether it was created just to spread rumors.
After finding the source of the rumor, the system can keep a close eye on how other users react to the rumor — either confirming or denying it — to help analyze and further determine the reliability of the information.
Some people might find the Pheme system unnecessary based on the idea that false rumors never survive for long and people always get to the truth over time. While that’s a fair point, there is a certain class of rumors, such as “a tiger is at large” or “an asteroid (小行星) is about to hit the Earth”, that can cause panic among people and thus lead to serious consequences.
These are cases when we need to be able to check for accuracy quickly. “Our system aims to help with that, by tracking and confirming information in real time,” a leading researcher Kalina Bontcheva, at the University of Sheffield, UK, told the BBC.
According to Bontcheva, Pheme is still under development and won’t be ready for another 18 months.
Until then, there’s an old-fashioned technique that you can use to protect yourself from false information — ask questions, check sources and don’t believe any claim until you’ve seen the evidence.
58. What is the article mainly about?
A. Tips on how to deal with rumors online.
B. Factors that make rumors so easy to spread.
C. A new device that can check whether online rumors are true or not.
D. An introduction to some types of lie detectors.
59. How does the Pheme system determine the reliability of a piece of information?
A. Based on how the majority of people react to it.
B. Based on the reliability of its sources and the history of its authors.
C. By collecting and examining relevant information to further confirm it.
D. By making use of an “Internet bot” to track and verify the information.
60. Which of the following statements might the author agree with?
A. The Pheme system is not very helpful because all rumors eventually die down.
B. The Pheme system will be ready to help social networks become more accurate by the end of 2014.
C. The Pheme system can identify almost all kinds of rumors on social networking sites.
D. The Pheme system aims to respond to rumors quickly so as to reduce the impact of false ones.