Codesinfo launches five digital tools to combat disinformation
Technologies developed by selected media outlets aim to help news organizations improve the quality of online information
Codesinfo – Innovation Fund for Combating Disinformation, a Projor program funded by the Google News Initiative, has announced the results of the projects supported throughout 2024. The initiative selected five Brazilian news organizations to develop innovative technological solutions to fight disinformation, with investments of up to R$ 100,000 each.
Ambiental Media created Capí, an intelligent chatbot providing reliable information on climate change, while Aos Fatos developed Check-up, a tool for analyzing disinformation in health ads. Folha de S.Paulo introduced Mosaico, a Python library for programmatic video creation, and Folha do Mate implemented the “Quem Disse?” plugin, which increases transparency about authors and sources on news websites. Finally, Núcleo Jornalismo presented Xarta, an open-source mini CMS designed to keep information updated on websites.
Together, these tools offer a diverse set of technological resources that can be adopted and adapted by news organizations across the country, strengthening the fight against the spread of false information and promoting a more reliable digital environment.
Learn more about the projects and their solutions:
Ambiental Media (SC): Developed Capí, an AI-powered chatbot designed to combat environmental and climate disinformation. The tool provides reliable and up-to-date information on climate change, using a robust database and advanced language models like Gemini.
Aos Fatos (RJ): Created the Check-up project, a tool for analyzing the presence of disinformation in health advertisements on major Brazilian news websites. The system consists of three modules: a crawler to collect links, a scraper to capture ads, and a thematic classifier based on an advanced language model.
Folha de S.Paulo (SP): Developed Mosaico, a Python library for creating and managing video compositions programmatically. The tool provides a high-level interface for working with media assets, positioning elements, applying effects, and generating video scripts.
Folha do Mate (RS): Created the “Quem Disse?” plugin for the WordPress CMS, designed to combat disinformation on news websites. The tool gives users quick access to detailed information about digital content authors, including profiles, qualifications, and publication history.
Núcleo Jornalismo (SP): Developed Xarta, an open-source mini content management system (CMS) designed to keep website information constantly updated through embeddable context cards.
All the developed solutions are available on the Codesinfo website, with open-source code on GitHub, allowing other journalistic organizations to replicate and adapt these tools.
