STORY UPDATED: check for updates below.
Update: April Fools! Dozens of people tried registering their username, which shows there is a great need for facts on social media. Go here if you want to make your social media timeline a little more factual...
Introducing: Fact/Line™
Lead Stories is proud to present Fact/Line™: a brand new social network based on facts and fact checking. Wouldn't it be nice to have a social media experience with entirely factual information? No more algorithm-pushed clickbait, dubious scams, influencers hawking their stuff or extreme political content based on AI generated misinformation?
Well, now you can have such an experience!
We wanted to present it sooner but due to various technical and administrative delays with the app stores we were unable to show it to the world yet. We can no longer wait so today we're announcing the major features already. We are still working out the last technical kinks with our team of beta-testers right now, but via the form at the end of this article you can already reserve your username for when the servers go live to the general public later this week.
Why?
An obvious question for anyone launching a new social network is: Why? The answer is obvious: none of the other networks are entirely satisfactory. Either they discourage political or social content, they are filled with teenagers or old people and if they aren't they are probably overrun with bots hawking porn and crypto scams. And many of them are filled with conspiracy theories, opinions packaged as news, wild speculation presented as facts or deepfaked images and videos peddled as the real thing.
How?
Fact/Line™ is based on the same open-source software that powers Mastodon but with some significant modifications. The Fact/Line™ timeline is not chronological, not based on engagement count or not run by some recommendation algorithm that tries to guess your personal preferences by tracking your interactions. It respects your privacy and is not based on any personal information at all.
Instead, an algorithm rewards the posts that are most factual and shows them more prominently. All posts made to the network are automatically given a TruthRank™ score using an advanced AI model trained on a database of fact checks (initially mainly from Lead Stories but if you are a fact checking organisation with verified signatory status of the IFCN Code-of-Principles and you want to be included, please get in touch via [email protected]). The model will also use several lists of websites deemed (un)trustworthy by experts in order to boost posts with links to factual content.
Posts that are verified as 100% true will show up above the "factline" on user timelines so they get seen first.
Users will still be able to see the posts below the "factline" (fact checking isn't censorship after all, it is about adding information) but at least they will know that these posts aren't to be trusted without additional vetting.
(Source: screenshot of a beta-test timeline of Fact/Line™. The politics & opinion post appears below the "factline" because it isn't factual.)
Features
- ✅☑️✔️User accounts can be *triple* verified. That's right, forget about having just one measly blue or green checkmark. Users on Fact/Line™ can have up to three different verification methods enabled (verified ID, verified website ownership and verified money paid to Fact/Line™).
- ❌🤖❌No crypto scam bots allowed
- 💰⛓️📈Users who make a post deemed factual by the AI can mint their fact into their personal FactNFT™ on the proprietary FactChain™ which they will then be able to trade for FactTokens™ on our FactMarket™. A unique investment opportunity!
- ❌👨💼💰Fact/Line™ is not run by a billionaire!
- ☺️☺️☺️Emoji support out of the box.
- 📹🔟📹Upload videos of up to 10 minutes... as long as they are factual!
- ✅💰✅Monetization not based on reach but on reliability.
- ❌🔐🕵️♂️No shadowbans or blocks needed: if a post is certified, grade-A 🐂-sh*t it will simply not show in your timeline above the "factline"!
- 💯🎣🐠 Total and 100% protection from fishing attacks.
Reserve your username!
Want to have your favorite username when we go live in a few days? Enter it here to see if it is still available, if it is you can pre-register it right away!
Updates:
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2024-04-02T07:20:47Z 2024-04-02T07:20:47Z April Fools!
