SuperPacApp is a new app for iPhone and Android phones that says it can help you tell whether a campaign ad is being truthful. The app comes out of the MIT Media lab and the folks at Knight Foundation and works similar to music identifying apps like Shazam or SoundHound. So, like those music apps, when you see or hear an ad, you hold your phone up and SuperPacApp “listens” then searches databases for honesty. Oh, I wish there was a database of honesty.
The app pulls in data from non-partisan watchdog groups, such as PolitiFact and FactCheck.org, which routinely rate the accuracy of ads and political statements. Since there’s no central database, the app team has to find all of the commercials manually. “We’re plugged in with those journalists and they’re feeding us ads on a one-off basis. And then, separately, on our own, we’re signed up for all the newsletters and press sheets that alert us to when new ad’s are put out there,” Siegel told CNN.
Cool but clunky, because unless you sit around with the app open waiting to hear a commercial, you’re probably going to miss out. I suppose people have DVRs now, though, so I guess you could not skip all the commercials and wait around to fact check political ads, if that’s your thing.
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