‘Super PAC App’ Tells You If A Political Ad Is Being Truthful
Sick and tired of political ads that tell nothing but lies? So was a group of researchers at MIT’s Media Lab so they built the Super PAC App, a mobile application capable of discovering who produced political ads simply by listening to them.
The program works by holding a mobile phone up to a political ad and then collecting audio information to determine which ad is playing, much in the same way the Shazam application identifies music.
After the ad is identified the program reveals which group paid for the TV spot and how much that group is spending on the particular political campaign being investigated.
Once the ads group and spending facts are revealed users are then directed to nonpartisan sources such as PolitiFact and FactCheck.org.
The best part? The app is 100% free to download and use thanks to a gran from the Knight Foundation.
The Super Pac App was created according to its founders because Super PACs these days have an “unlimited amount to spend on presidential campaign ads.”
While most users will likely use the mobile program to examine the political ads for President Barack Obama and GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney it can also be used for other political ad campaigns around the country.
As to whether the Super PAC App will actually have any influence over the political choices of ad viewers is unknown, in any case exposing lies and determining the facts is worth its weight in gold, especially in this day and age of massive political campaign ad spending.
