The 'Hack Fake' hackathon, which was jointly organised by the Citizen Digital Foundation (CDF) and Tinkerhub Foundation at TinkerSpace in Kochi, marked the convergence of humanities and tech students, with participants from the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Calicut, VNS College Konni, and the Tinkerhub Community's engineering students. The primary objective of the hackathon was to develop a Malayalam text-based news fact-checking tool. This tool aimed to assist journalists, fact-checkers in Malayalam news media, and researchers by partially screening news reports. The event also included informative sessions on artificial intelligence, fact-checking, and an introduction to Figma for media students from the Mathrubhumi Media School.

The participants' dedication, collaboration, and expertise culminated in the creation of a fundamental tool for analyzing news content based on diverse criteria. Leveraging Machine Learning techniques, the tool could identify language and content patterns indicative of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation. Media students annotated the knowledge database for the tool based on fact-checking criteria provided by participating media partners. Throughout the hackathon, senior AI/ML engineers from the industry collaborated with the participants to ensure the quality and viability of the outcomes. Presently, the tool is accessible to authorised media organisations and researchers, but further development is required before public accessibility.

The collaboration between journalism and engineering students in this hackathon is unprecedented, providing hope for the future. Nidhi Sudhan, Co-Founder of Citizen Digital Foundation, expressed optimism about senior AI/ML engineers voluntarily contributing to the quality and performance of this initial tool.

The hackathon's concluding ceremony showcased a demonstration of the tool by senior AI engineer Gopikrishnan Sasikumar. He emphasised that the team's created database could be a substantial contribution to the development of fact-checking artificial intelligence. Shajan C Kumar (Dean, Mathrubhumi Media School), Bhagath Chandrasekhar (Senior Newsperson, The Fourth News), Habeeb Rahman YP (Fact Checker, Researcher, University of Calicut), Nidhi Sudhan (Co-founder, Citizen Digital Foundation), and Akash SS (Content Executive, Citizen Digital Foundation) participated in the event.

Media partners Mathrubhumi, The Fourth News and Dool News actively collaborated in this initiative.