LazyTruth debunks dubious email claims

Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab Many people have gullible friends or crazy uncles, who believe every urban myth but also insist on forwarding it to everyone they know. Now there\'s a weapon to fight spam - an automatic fact-checker called LazyTruth built into your email.
Matt Stempeck, one of the researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, who came up with the software said: \"We get a lot of crap in our inboxes\". Stempeck unveiled LazyTruth  at a spring conference last week.
Wild rumours, such as the myth that Barack Obama is a Muslim, do the rounds for years, even though they have been repeatedly debunked. LazyTruth aims to combat this by delivering kernels of truth right to your inbox. When it recognises the unique phrases that turn up in viral emails it displays a rebuttal sourced from fact-checking websites such as Snopes.com  and FactCheck.org.  
The tool\'s creators plan to experiment with different configurations to find the most effective. For example, including a link to another article might engage more people. Or it might be better to embed one succinct passage that debunks the entire email. The team will gauge effectiveness based on how many LazyTruth users send responses to fact-challenged emailers.