Using browser extensions to uncover disinformation

ReviewMeta

ReviewMeta, a browser add-on for Firefox and Chrome, helps detect fake reviews on Amazon's websites [10]. After accessing an Amazon product web page, click on the ReviewMeta icon in a new tab to open the ReviewMeta website. ReviewMeta automatically searches the reviews for the product based on various criteria.

Some of the criteria look at the quality of the individual reviews. ReviewMeta also examines linguistic aspects of the reviews, as well as the classification of the commentators as verified or unverified buyers on Amazon. To perform these tasks, ReviewMeta accesses databases and lists the results on the website with color highlighting. You can see at a glance whether negative or positive aspects predominate. ReviewMeta generates a new rating index based on the trusted ratings. If there are numerous dubious comments about a product on the page, the portal hides them. You only see the new rating index and the number of existing trusted ratings (Figure 7). You will find the evaluation criteria listed at the top of the web page described in detail below, sometimes with illustrations.

Figure 7: ReviewMeta searches reviews for fakes.

Conclusions

The tools discussed in this article can help you detect disinformation on the Internet. Some of these extensions evaluate news content, while others help detect fake images and videos. There's even a tool for weeding out fake reviews on Amazon. Because analysis techniques vary depending on the source medium, it is always good idea to use several tools to separate the geniune content from the fake.

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