BS Detector Lets You Know When You’re Reading A Fake News Source

Chrome: Facebook has a very real fake news problem. To help combat this, BS Detector will show a little red warning when you’re about to click a link that comes from a questionable, “satirical” or fake news source.

While most of us are already programmed to ignore obviously fake tabloids at the supermarket, we’re still adjusting to the era of fake news online. It’s just as easy to share an article from a site created by a Macedonian teen as it is to share from the Washington Post. If you’re not used to checking the reliability of news sources, it might be easy to get duped. BS Detector aims to help make it easier to distinguish the wheat from the chaff.

The extension is relatively simple, using a basic list of fake news sources as its reference point. You can find many similar lists online. As with anything, you probably shouldn’t take BS Detector as sacred — even the extension can have false positives — but if you get the warning while using it, maybe look for confirmation from another outlet before trusting what you read. Or do that no matter what the extension says. It’s just good practice.

You can review the list of sources for BS Detector at the Github page for the project here.

BS Detector [Chrome Web Store]