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RUMOR

Rumor Tracker: a viral screenshot is not a source

How Media Lab plans to record origin, confidence, evidence and the outcome of each relevant rumor.

Open-source review5 minAug 15, 2026

A screenshot with no context circulating in group chats isn't a source: it's a starting point, at best. Rumor Tracker exists to treat rumors as what they are: unconfirmed claims, with a confidence level that can move as more evidence shows up.

Every logged rumor carries four fixed fields: origin (where it came from), first seen (when it surfaced), confidence (how solid the evidence is today), and status (still open, confirmed, or debunked). No rumor becomes news just because it went viral.

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