This photo taken from the official website of Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) shows (from left, front row) Huang Yu, associate vice-president (mainland) and Dean of the School of Communication at HKBU, Raymond Li, associate professor of practice at Department of Journalist at HKBU, (from left, back row) Nick Zhang, assistant professor at HKBU and Stephanie Tsang, research assistant professor at HKBU, announcing the official launch of the HKBU FactCheck Service on Dec 29, 2020.

HONG KONG - The School of Communication at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) launched the HKBU FactCheck Service on Tuesday, aiming to provide an authoritative, professional and impartial fact-checking service amidst the proliferation of fake news, and to improve the public's media literacy in the digital era.

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Media professionals will be invited to register for the app, act as contributors and participate in the fact-checking process of information carried in viral posts

It is the first research-based, systematic fact-checking service launched and operated by an independent academic institution in Hong Kong.

The pilot run of the service involving manual fact-checking was carried out in September. Selected suspicious content appearing in popular online and social media platforms in Hong Kong were identified for investigation by the project team. The topics covered politics, business, health, science and other social issues. Results of the fact-checking were shared on the service's website and social media platforms.

The service will be further enhanced with the launch of the BU FactCheck app. Media professionals will be invited to register for the app, act as contributors and participate in the fact-checking process of information carried in viral posts. The app is soon available for the public to receive up to date fact-checking results.

Celine Song, associate professor of HKBU's School of Communication, said that through publishing fact-checking articles regularly, the service is dedicated to raising public awareness of misinformation, guiding the public to determine what is false and truthful information, and advancing journalism teaching and learning.

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At a later stage, the project will make use of the collected data to develop a resourceful AI-supported data platform for carrying out impactful research projects, Song said.