Grapple

Providing a more complete picture of what's happening on the internet, when it's happening and where it's happening.

The Problem

Key to understanding the information we encounter online — to gauging its veracity and credibility and the motivations behind it — is grasping where a story originated, who put it there and when, how it has spread, and how it has changed over time. If you’re a company or an individual being targeted by misinformation, this becomes a matter of urgency. But that’s a lot easier said than done: information takes many paths, through news articles, message boards, blogs and social media feeds, and those paths are hard to trace.

The Solution

Grapple is a web application that uses artificial intelligence to show where information comes from and how it evolves as it’s shared. The technology breaks down text in online material and recognizes when unique ideas emerge among different types of content, where they start, and who started them. It “unbundles” chains of online content and sorts out common threads, so that tracing the DNA of information becomes “as easy as performing a Google search.” The result: “a new kind of accountability” for those who originate and shape information online.