Logically (company)
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Logically is a British multinational technology startup company that specializes in analyzing and fighting
disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...
. Logically was founded in 2017 by Lyric Jain and is based in
Brighouse Brighouse (, locally also ) is a town within the metropolitan borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated on the River Calder, West Y ...
, England, with offices in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
,
Mysore Mysore ( ), officially Mysuru (), is a city in the southern Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of Mysore district and Mysore division. As the traditional seat of the Wadiyar dynasty, the city functioned as the capital of the ...
,
Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...
, and
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern and Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States between the East Coast of the United States ...
.


History

Lyric Jain, who founded Logically in 2017, said he was partly inspired by his grandmother's turn to misinformation before she died of pancreatic cancer. A
WhatsApp WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an American social media, instant messaging (IM), and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make vo ...
group that spread misinformation led her to replace "her cancer medication in favour of unproven, alternative treatments." He also witnessed the spread of misinformation in Britain around the time of the
Brexit referendum The 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum, commonly referred to as the EU referendum or the Brexit referendum, was a referendum that took place on 23 June 2016 in the United Kingdom (UK) and Gibraltar under the provisions o ...
. An
MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...
grant helped launch the company. Logically first operated solely from Britain, employing 30 British residents by 2019. In early 2019, the company expanded to India, recruiting 40 employees who perform most of the company's
fact-checking Fact-checking is the process of verifying the factual accuracy of questioned reporting and statements. Fact-checking can be conducted before or after the text or content is published or otherwise disseminated. Internal fact-checking is such che ...
. In its 2019 seed round, Logically raised $7 million. In 2020, it raised another €2.77 million, including from the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund and XTX Ventures. Logically had 100 employees. In July 2020, the
International Fact-Checking Network The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a non-profit journalism school and research organization in St. Petersburg, Florida, United States. The school is the owner of the ''Tampa Bay Times'' newspaper and the International Fact-Checking Netwo ...
certified the company's Logically Facts unit as a fact-checker. The certification was renewed in September 2021 and January 2023. In July 2022, Logically received $24 million in funding from the Alexa Fund,
Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...
's
venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...
unit. At that time, Logically had 175 employees in its US, UK and Indian branches. Jain said that while the company's main customers were the American, British and Indian governments, retail brands were also turning to it for help with protecting themselves from attacks by business rivals. In June 2023, ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...
'' reported that Logically was paid more than £1.2 million by the UK government to analyse disinformation terms online alongside its partnership with
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
. Such topics included narratives pertaining to the COVID-19 pandemic, including anti-lockdown and anti-COVID-19 vaccine sentiment. In August 2024, Logically acquired Insikt AI, an
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
company based in
Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
.


Operation

Logically says it uses artificial intelligence to initially filter claims, saying that they use "AI to run claims through a database of previously checked facts, and assign a score of how likely that claim is to be accurate, based on past claims and the credibility of its source". After this matching process, human employees use their judgment to assess whether they believe claims to be true or false. Jain said in 2022, "There are clear limitations of going with a technology-only approach... and so we also retain the nuance and expertise that the
uman Uman (, , ) is a city in Cherkasy Oblast, central Ukraine. It is located to the east of Vinnytsia. Located in the east of the historical region of Podolia, the city rests on the banks of the Umanka River. Uman serves as the administrative c ...
fact checkers are able to bring to the problem. It is essential in our view to have experts be central to our decision making." In March 2021, Logically launched a service named Logically Intelligence (LI), which is aimed at helping governments and
non-governmental organisations A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...
(NGOs) to identify and counter online misinformation. The service collects data from thousands of websites and social media platforms, then analyses it using an algorithm to identify potentially dangerous content and organise it into narrative groups. Jain said the company monitors how its clients use the platform and that any use that deviates from monitoring misinformation requires approval from the company's ethics board. From August 2020 to June 2022, Logically offered a browser extension to help users check the credibility of online articles and fact-check claims.


Investigations

Logically helped ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' disprove claims by an English pastor that 5G technology was connected to vaccination tracking. Logically is one of many companies hired by
TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...
works to curtail disinformation being spread on the social network. ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. It was founded on February 21, 1925, by Harold Ross and his wife Jane Grant, a reporter for ''The New York T ...
'' noted its tracking of disinformation related to healthcare and the COVID-19 pandemic. In August 2021, researchers at Logically identified the prominent
QAnon QAnon ( ) is a far-right conspiracy theories in United States politics, American political conspiracy theory and political movement that originated in 2017. QAnon centers on fabricated claims made by an anonymous individual or individuals kno ...
influencer GhostEzra as Robert Smart, an evangelical Christian from
Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...
. GhostEzra was prominent for promoting
antisemitic Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
conspiracy theories and sharing the
neo-Nazi Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazism, Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and Supremacism#Racial, racial supremacy (ofte ...
propaganda film '' Europa: The Last Battle'' in QAnon communities. In January 2022, Logically researchers published a report on Disclose.tv, a German
disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...
outlet with a following that includes
Holocaust deniers Denial of the Holocaust is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that asserts that the genocide of Jews by the Nazis is a fabrication or exaggeration. It includes making one or more of the following false claims: *Nazi Germany's "Final Solution" wa ...
and neo-Nazis. In February 2022, the BBC cited Logically's research in tracking the rise of pro-Russian accounts linking Ukraine to Nazi ideology following the 2022 Russian invasion of the country. In August 2023, the company reported on a Chinese disinformation campaign related to the discharge of radioactive water at the
Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant The is a disabled nuclear power plant located on a site in the towns of Ōkuma, Fukushima, Ōkuma and Futaba, Fukushima, Futaba in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The plant Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, suffered major damage from the 201 ...
. According to ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'', Chinese state media did not spread false information but did omit crucial details.


References


External links

*
Logically Facts
{{Disinformation Companies based in Calderdale 2017 establishments in the United Kingdom Fact-checking websites Internet properties established in 2017