Hello,

We have been quiet on this newsletter for a while but only because we have been knee-deep in work. Hopefully this newsletter will get you as excited about the projects as we are about working on them.

But first, Tattle turned three in March 2022. We have released our third annual report for the period of March 2021 - Feb 2022. The report describes Tattle's activities in its third year of operation. We also list the revenue sources and how the revenue was spent.

Read Annual Report for 2021

Now for updates on ongoing projects!

Presenting Uli

Our year-long project on addressing online gender based violence with the Centre for Internet and Society is now in its last stretch.

The plugin, now called Uli, is open to a closed beta.

In the beta, we've implemented the archiving and slur replacement feature - slurs found in a list crowdsourced from activists and researchers, are blurred from Twitter feeds of the plugin users.

It also lets users archive instances of abuse directed at them.

The final version, which will also include a feature for machine learning driven OGBV detection, is due for release in a month.

As anyone working on hate speech detection will tell you, the task is incredibly challenging. Working in Indian languages adds another dimension of complexity.

But we're excited with how Uli has turned out. More importantly, we're immensely proud of the collaborative process through which it was designed and built.

We are grateful to the team at CIS, as well as the many activists who have volunteered their time and expertise, for being ideal partners for this project.

Three is The Magic Number:

We started three new projects this year!

Funded by the Grant for the Web, we’re running a behavioural study with Monk Prayogshala on incentives for sharing accurate information.

Monk Prayogshala is leading on the experimental design, while Tattle is building the tech platform to execute the study.

We're looking for participants for the study. So, if you or anyone you know would like to help build evidence around why Indians share bad or good information, please sign up here.

We also started a project with GitHub’s Social Impact and Policy teams for developing metrics from GitHub that can inform economics research and international development.

As an open source project building datasets for researchers, we understand first-hand the challenge of building and opening datasets responsibly; and evaluating the impact and benefits of open source projects.

Finally, Denny is putting his storytelling skills to work.

He has teamed up with Adhiraj Singh to develop an online role playing game that helps describe the negative externalities of sharing polarizing misinformation.

This game has received initial funding from the Pluralism and Civic Exchange fund at the Mercatus Center.

We don’t want to give too many spoilers but here’s the gist - by sharing inaccurate and polarizing information against their opponents players gain clout and go viral; but it also makes the game world spiral out of control.

If the first play tests are anything to go by, the game world is theater for some intense human drama, bringing out the best and the worst in people.

2022 has started with a lot of bustle and we’re grateful that more people have joined Tattle on its journey.

Our search for a star Full Stack Developer continues.

Here are some GIFs from the team meeting in Rishikesh in April that seem like apt metaphors for work right now.

There are some challenging currents but also team work to wade through it. The ride is a little daunting at times, but on the whole a lot of fun.

Best,
Tarunima