#factbot

[scrumpyfan43]

@slimetony I don’t think @staff is impressed with your posts :/

[algopop]

Factbot by Shardcore

This is a great example of what Factbot is capable of. Factbot algorithmically generates 'facts' and post them alongside a suitable found image. Factbot also publishes to tumblr.

The internet is a massive repository of information, from the profound to the mundane. Far too much stuff for a single human to handle, so we prefer to get our facts chosen for us, by newspapers, experts or friends. Increasingly these facts are supplied via social media, such as twitter or Facebook.

Whilst we carefully choose the people we follow and tend to imbue their updates with a degree of authority, we inevitably find ourselves coming across Clickbait stories purely created to ‘drive traffic’.

Often these snippets of information are passed, uncritically, across the network, because they are entertaining, or provocative, or (more dangerously) support our world view. But this process of passing facts around is open to abuse, where ‘facts’ are fabricated, and uncritically passed on.