Washington Post creates software to fact check Trump’s tweets

Kristen Burgess | Contributing Writer

The Washington Post has devised a tool that will allow users to receive fact-checking information on President Trump’s tweets from Dec. 16 onward. The tool is an extension built for Google Chrome or Firefox and can be downloaded by accessing The Washington Post’s article.

 

Once downloaded, the browser extension will automatically provide additional context and information regarding the content of a specified tweet after a user clicks on a tweet from either the President of the United States’s account (@POTUS) or Donald Trump’s personal account (@realDonaldTrump) within the specified time period.

 

For example, Dec. 16 at 6:09 a.m., Trump tweeted, “Are we talking about the same cyberattack where it was revealed that the head of the DNC illegally gave Hillary the questions to the debate?” Further investigation of this tweet showed that Trump’s statement was not completely true. The Washington Post’s Dave Weigel was able to discover how Donna Brazile, the alleged “head of the DNC” mentioned in Trump’s tweet, was actually not the head of the DNC at the time of the controversial and heavily covered debate question release to the Hillary Clinton campaign for presidency. This information is provided on the program’s analysis of the tweet.

 

The Washington Post has described how their new browser extension is still in its early stages, however its goal is “to provide additional context where needed for Trump’s tweets moving forward (and a few golden oldies).”

 

The newspaper describes their new tool as a “work in progress” and encourages users to offer other feedback and their thoughts on the program.

  

In hope of making their product more efficient and accurate, The Washington Post received help from developer Stuart P. Bentley in creating the extension. Bentley acts as the head of product for JetWarp, a company that specializes in creating virtual reality tours for browsers.