Twitter bot vs misinformation = @accuracybot
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I made this icon by hand in less than two minutes, so I know it does not look cool. But you get the point.
We all hate them.
But what if we created a “spam” Twitter bot for good?
Here’s my latest idea: What if we create a Twitter bot account that actively tweets at people who are spreading misinformation via Twitter?
We know that vaccines don’t cause autism, why not tweet a response (with a link) to someone making that claim?
We know that Obama was born in the US. Let’s tweet a response to someone tweeting about his birth certificate.
Let’s then move the bot – or bots – into breaking news situations where misinformation, including images, spread quickly on Twitter.
The way I see it, this isn’t too “hard” to do… but it requires a few things:
Step 2: Identify misinformation
Step 3: Define pattern of misinformation tweets
Step 4: Craft 140 character response to misinformation tweets
Step 5: Repeat steps 2-4 for the next set of misinformation.
Oh yeah, that whole coding a Twitter bot is perhaps the most important step.
If this works, I can for see news organizations creating accuracy bots of their own battling misinformation.
What do you think?
More importantly, are interested in helping create this?
I already did Step 1: @accuracybot