Let’s Share Reality Again

Over half of Americans get their news from social media sites that have no legal responsibility to uphold the truth or correct falsehoods. So, it’s no wonder our country is more polarized than ever. But thankfully, active citizens are beginning to build up the common ground of reason again.

This week, we at Goodly Labs are inviting the nation to join our Public Editor project, which evaluates the most popular news items circulating on the Internet, and labels over 40 types of reasoning error in each article. We’re launching right now to block the bogus Covid-19 misinformation that helps the virus spread.

Public Editor is the first and only system capable of showing newsreaders which words and phrases in an article commit specific reasoning errors. While other projects (like NewsGuard) warn readers off untrustworthy websites, Public Editor teaches users to recognize over 40 specific ways that content can be misleading. Newsreaders can also join Public Editor’s team of annotators who follow careful protocols to label errors like the ‘false dilemma,’ ‘selection effects,’ ‘systematic uncertainty,’ ‘exaggeration,’ and more. Team members earn badges and rapidly improve their own literacy skills as they help their fellow newsreaders spot lazy reasoning and flawed thinking.

The Public Editor team uses neutral criteria to evaluate content from the entire political spectrum. Its goal is to improve the reasoning of all our public debates, regardless of partisanship. Starting today, the Public Editor team invites you and everyone to join our mission to rebuild common ground for reasoned debate. The sooner we begin, the sooner we can share reality again.