WeVerify technology helps fight coronavirus misinformation

By Kalina Bontcheva on March 1st, 2020 in Blog Posts, News

Our verification plug-in is being used for debunking disinformation about the coronavirus in numerous countries (USA, France, India, Portugal, Netherlands, Colombia, Ecuador, Mauritius), and languages (e.g. English, French, Spanish, Dutch, and Portuguese) by many fact-checkers and news organizations (e.g. AFP, France24, The Quint, Boom, India Today, L’Express, Canal 1, Volkskrant).

It should be noted that not all publications are acknowledging the use of the tools and that many of them are still referring to the toolbox as the InVID plugin, even though they are using de facto the InVID-WeVerify plugin which has been redesigned with two new co-branded InVID-WeVerify releases in 2019. One specific example are the video keyframe extraction feature that was enhanced in the last release of November 2019 and again on the server side (by our partner CERTH) at the beginning of February 2020 to improve performance.

Our verification plug-in has now attracted more than 20.000 users on the Chrome store between journalists, fact-checkers, human rights defenders, emergency response workers and media literacy scholars. This number has doubled since WeVerify took over the plug-in exploitation at the end of the InVID project.

Example debunks in English:

https://factcheck.afp.com/video-shows-security-exercise-simulating-hostage-taking-dakar-airport

https://www.indiatoday.in/fact-check/story/viral-video-mass-graves-dead-bodies-italy-tv-series-pandemic-1660116-2020-03-26

https://factcheck.afp.com/video-was-filmed-2011-nearly-decade-novel-coronavirus-outbreak

https://www.boomlive.in/world/coronavirus/old-video-shared-as-novel-coronavirus-induced-panic-buying-in-germany-7290

https://www.altnews.in/hostage-rescue-drill-video-at-senegal-airport-viral-with-coronavirus-spin/

https://www.altnews.in/no-saddam-hussein-did-not-say-us-had-threatened-iraq-with-coronavirus-in-1990/

https://www.thequint.com/news/webqoof/canadian-pm-wife-releases-video-warning-against-covid-19-fact-check

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/debunked-people-didnt-really-panic-164030969.html

https://www.altnews.in/no-china-didnt-grant-permission-to-read-quran-in-the-light-of-coronavirus-epidemic/

https://www.sunnewsonline.com/facts-on-coronavirus/
https://factcheck.afp.com/no-video-shows-market-selling-wild-animals-indonesias-sulawesi-island
https://observers.france24.com/en/20200207-china-coronavirus-doctor-collapse-surgery
https://factcheck.afp.com/video-was-filmed-novel-coronavirus-outbreak
https://www.thequint.com/news/webqoof/china-blocking-roads-to-contain-coronavirus-fake-news-fact-check
https://www.boomlive.in/world/coronavirus-outbreak-does-this-video-show-people-running-away-from-a-chinese-man-6953
https://www.altnews.in/old-video-of-ex-malaysian-pm-viral-as-chinese-pm-praying-in-a-mosque-amid-coronavirus-outbreak/
https://www.indiatoday.in/fact-check/story/fact-check-old-unrelated-video-of-bats-streaming-out-from-a-roof-linked-to-coronavirus-outbreak-1646095-2020-02-13
https://www.thequint.com/news/webqoof/video-of-malayasian-woman-collapsing-shared-as-death-due-to-coronavirus

Examples in French: