Online content and information quality analysts

Algorithmic content delivery systems rule social media and search engines in the internet. Our approach helps online social media platforms transition from relying only on an algorithmic engagement-based ranking of content. Our solution helps these platforms to supplement with an algorithmic ranking method that prioritizes information quality. This would present social media users with 'algorithmic choice': a user is empowered to choose how content encountered on the social media newsfeed is organized.

Information quality may well become one of the defining challenges of the first half of the twenty-first century. Emphasizing quality information by prioritizing fact-based content and evidence-based reality (while upholding freedom of speech) will be crucial to reduce misinformation online.

For more information about our services, research and for booking us to speak at public events, public lectures or short lectures at educational institutions (including libraries), contact us

Avram Turing is a non-partisan research-driven organization of analysts

We rate, label and summarize the information quality of trending/viral online content.

Through our research, in 2021, we coined two new concepts

“non-information” and “off-information”

and introduced them to the international research community and the information quality analysis body of knowledge and elaborated in our book Misinformation Matters: Online Content and Quality Analysis (Taylor & Francis)

Book Description:

What is ‘misinformation’? Why does it matter? How does it spread on the internet, especially on social media platforms? What can we do to counteract the worst of its effects? Can we counteract its effects now that it is ubiquitous? These are the questions we answer in this book. We are living in an information age (specifically an ‘algorithmic age’) which prioritises information quantity over quality. Social media has brought together online billions of people from across the world and the impact of diverse platforms, such as Facebook, WeChat, Reddit, LinkedIn, Signal, WhatsApp, Gab, Instagram, Telegram, Snapchat, has been transformational.

The internet was created, with the best of intentions, as an online space where written content could be created, consumed and diffused without any real intermediary. This empowering aspect of the web is still, mostly, a force for good. People, on the whole, are better informed and online discussion is more inclusive because barriers to participation are reduced. As activity online has grown, however, an expanding catalogue of research reveals a darker side to social media, and the internet generally. Namely, misinformation’s ability to negatively influence our behaviour both online and offline.

The solution we provide to this growing dilemma is informed by Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, which examines the relationship between language and reality from a philosophical perspective, and complements Claude Shannon’s Information Quantity Theory, which addresses the quantification, storage, and communication of digital information from a mathematical perspective. The book ends by setting out a model designed by us: a ‘Wittgensteinian’ approach to information quality. It defines content published online by clarifying the propositions and claims made within it. Our model’s online information quality checklist allows users to effectively analyse the quality of trending online content. This approach to misinformation analysis and prevention has been designed to be both easy to use and pragmatic. It upholds freedom of speech online while using the ‘harm principle’ to categorise problematic content.

Our book can be purchased with a discount at our publisher's website, click here: Routledge

We were pleasantly surprised to find that our approach to online content rating and ranking is in line with the solution proposed in 2019 by Dr Stephen Wolfram to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee Hearing on Communication, Technology, Innovation and the Internet.

This expert testimony validates our approach to online content ranking

The above video is a compilation of some of Dr Stephen Wolfram's responses in the U.S. Senate Hearing "Optimizing for Engagement: Understanding the Use of Persuasive Technology on Internet Platforms." The Hearing examined how algorithmic decision-making and machine learning on internet platforms might be influencing the public.

partner with us / collaborate with us / contact us: click here

ContentQual® our startup will deploy digital technology for online misinformation prevention

a consumer-facing/content-focused online platform/app/Web browser extension,

helps to amplify high quality content circulating online

and add friction to low quality/misinformation (slow down/reduce the sharing)

which helps to strengthen the credibility of authentic online content producers and online news media by this signal of trustworthiness

We also produce research reports, academic papers, opinion articles

and we conduct online misinformation prevention training

Blog

Freedom of speech is not freedom to confuse real hate speech with ordinary speech we hate

by Avram Turing on 9 January, 2023 with No Comments

It’s much too easy (in the name of “free speech”) to fall into the hypocrisy of permitting what the whole world recognizes as hate speech while only censoring certain speech we particularly hate. The movie Citizen Kane contains excellent dialogue and two of my favorite lines are spoken by a close friend of Mr Kane. Read More

Opinion…belief…truth…facts and decisions: Information quality analysis online

by Avram Turing on 25 April, 2022 with No Comments

Aphorisms abound, for the internet age, to help guide us through the digital jungle that’s the World Wide Web. “Correlation is not causation” is one, another is “you are entitled to your opinions but not your own facts.” An ‘opinion’ can belong to anyone without any consideration to ‘belief’, ‘truth’ or ‘fact’ and it is Read More

Misinformation Prevention – Some Recommended Videos

by Avram Turing on 10 September, 2021 with No Comments

Presented here are educational videos recommended by Avram Turing. These videos are lectures/talks by prominent scholars and researchers. This list will be regularly updated. Each video looks at misinformation from a different point of view but complimentary with other perspectives. danah boyd is the founder/president of Data & Society Research Institute. She is also partner Read More

Our Forthcoming Book: Misinformation Matters (Taylor & Francis)

by Avram Turing on 9 September, 2021 with No Comments

Our forthcoming book, Misinformation Matters: Online Content and Quality Analysis, will be published 19 April 2023 (Taylor & Francis) From the back cover: What is ‘misinformation’? Why does it matter? How does it spread on the internet, especially on social media platforms? What can we do to counteract the worst of its effects? Can we Read More

A Misinformation Prevention Reading List (100 PUBLICATIONS)

by Avram Turing on 23 August, 2021 with No Comments

Presented here is a misinformation prevention reading list. The range of works presented here in this list is meant to be indicative and definitely not exhaustive: too many brilliant works out there. The emphasis is on insights from foundational and background issues about misinformation online. The importance of critical thinking and analytical thinking skills is Read More

How We Categorize Online Content Based on Info Quality

by Avram Turing on 21 August, 2021 with No Comments

Here’s a rough diagram showing how Avram Turing categorizes different types of online content based on our theory of information quality. Through our research, in 2021 we coined two new concepts “non-information” and “off-information” then introduced them to the international research community and the information quality body of knowledge [1] Note [1] U.Omoregie (2021), Information Read More