MIT-affiliated researchers, David Karger and Farnaz Jahanbakhsh, have developed an innovative browser extension called Trustnet, offering an alternative to traditional content moderation by empowering users to assess the trustworthiness of information sources themselves. Trustnet works across various websites, including news aggregators, video-streaming platforms, and social media.
With Trustnet, users can open a side panel to label content as accurate, inaccurate, or questionable and identify other sources they trust. When visiting websites, Trustnet automatically displays assessments from these trusted sources in the side panel. Additionally, the extension checks all links on the page, fading those deemed inaccurate by trusted sources.
A two-week study revealed that even untrained users could effectively use Trustnet. Participants reported that the tool helped them think more critically about the content they encountered. To prevent users from becoming trapped in information bubbles, the researchers are exploring more structured ways of identifying trustworthy sources, possibly by recommending reliable organizations like the FDA.
David Karger emphasizes the importance of verified information, stating, “In today’s world, it’s trivial for bad actors to create unlimited amounts of misinformation that looks accurate, well-sourced, and carefully argued. The only way to protect ourselves from this flood will be to rely on information that has been verified by trustworthy sources. Trustnet presents a vision of how that future could look.”
