Troll Factory

Online game teaching you how fake news is spread - and why

1 follower

Online game teaching you how fake news is spread - and why

1 follower

Troll Factory game asks you to imagine you are a professional troll who tries to amass influence in social media by spreading fear, bias and suspicion using botnets, paid marketing and internet memes.

Launch tags:News•Free Games•Education

Launch Team

Viktor.comAn AI coworker that actually does the work

Promoted

A school friendly version would be interesting to see. Give students a better understanding on how much damage the social media can create.

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7yr ago

Troll Factory

Maker

@fsilva36 Big thanks for sharing your thoughts. This is something that we’re mapping currently. According to the feedback we’ve got so far, some teachers are already using Troll Factory as an educational material.

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7yr ago

What I mean by "school friendly" is the language used. there will always be that parent that is not okay with bad words and ruin the experience for the rest. Other than that I really think this can be widely used middle/high schools.

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7yr ago

Troll Factory

Maker

@fsilva36 Yes, got it! Thanks!

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7yr ago

@ilparone the fact that the examples are real is irrelevant for what I am saying. You took one-sided examples and there lies the problem. By the way, you included objective truths as fake news (like "clandestine immigration is illegal", maybe it isn't true for all countries in the world, but for most of the countries I know). Your product represents what it's apparently trying to fight.

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7yr ago

Troll Factory

Maker

@luqa Thanks for sharing your thoughts.

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7yr ago

This is a great way to talk about the fake news problem in a more praxis-oriented approach. I'm reading through some comments here in PH, as the topics usually peddled in fake news are politically-leaning, so will the comments about this app be. That said, the creators have to be especially careful in the examples that they pick as 'fake news'. I think they understand the risk in talking about fake news and showing examples (because it may inadvertently employ some of the same techniques used in trolling and spreading fake news), and I hope they would be more patient and determined to expand on this concept. Looking forward to future implementations/products based on this!

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7yr ago

Troll Factory

Maker

@jkspn Thanks, really appreciate your feedback! Indeed, concrete examples of the variety of methods related to misinformation need to pe highlighted: fake news is just one category among others, e.g. internet memes and conspiracy theories that intentionally muddle the border between fact and fiction.

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7yr ago

Really interesting approach, and educational. I wonder about a tally also including irl affects (even at the end). For example, as a result of your fake news, x people were killed, xxx families stopped speaking to each other, and a revolution was started in x. I’m thinking about it to enhance the impact, but the flip side is that it runs the risk of gamifying chaos and disorder. Still, great ap.

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6yr ago

I heard about this app on NPR. I was excited about using it in class, but I am SOOOOO glad I tested it out first before even mentioning it to students. The language in the posts is NOT suitable for the classroom. That was a major bummer for me.

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6yr ago

Tailry

I felt bad "sharing" those things even if it was all fake! Nice idea, interesting.

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7yr ago

Troll Factory

Maker

@mrdobelina Hear you indeed, Filippo. Many thanks for the feedback!

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7yr ago

Very limited and ridiculous content. The UI is nice tho. Missed opportunity really.

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7yr ago

Troll Factory

Maker

@julienreszka Many thanks for your feedback! We want to learn and improve for the future: what made the content ridiculous, and what you would have more? Thanks!

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7yr ago

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