BSmeter vs Hoaxy
Hoaxy, built by Indiana University's Observatory on Social Media, answered a question BSmeter cannot touch: how did a claim travel across a social network, who amplified it, and how much of that amplification was automated. It was explicit that it was not a fact-checking tool — it showed you the spread, not the truth. BSmeter answers the other half: it takes a YouTube, TikTok, Reel or podcast link, pulls out every verifiable claim, and scores each 0-100 against live web sources with the evidence linked. One maps the network, the other checks the content.
BSmeter vs Hoaxy: side by side
| Feature | BSmeter | Hoaxy |
|---|---|---|
| Tells you whether a claim is actually true | Yes — every claim scored 0-100 with linked sources | No — Hoaxy's docs stated plainly it was not a fact-checking tool |
| Analyses video and audio content | Native — transcribes YouTube, TikTok, Reels and podcasts, then checks the spoken claims | Tracked links to articles shared on social platforms, not video content |
| Currently available | Live and maintained; free tier, Basic $3.99/mo, Premium $8.99/mo | Retired July 2025 after ~8 years; hoaxy.osome.iu.edu now redirects to OSoMeNet, which carries the functionality forward |
| Diffusion network mapping (who spread it, and when) | None — BSmeter has no network analysis at all | Its core strength: node-and-edge graphs of retweets, replies, mentions and quotes, plus cumulative-share timelines |
| Bot and account-automation scoring | Flags deepfake and AI-generated media signals, but scores no accounts | Botometer-backed bot scores layered onto the network graph — genuinely strong here |
| Peer-reviewed methodology and open source | Commercial product; methodology not published | Backed by published academic research and open-sourced by OSoMe |
Where BSmeter wins
- Answers the truth question. BSmeter extracts each verifiable claim from a video and scores it 0-100 against live web sources with evidence linked — precisely the job Hoaxy told users it was not built to do.
- Works on video and audio. Hoaxy analysed links to articles circulating on social platforms; BSmeter transcribes the video or podcast itself and checks what was actually said out loud.
- It's live, and it works while you watch. The Chrome/Firefox extension checks claims in real time as the video plays. Hoaxy stopped operating in July 2025.
Where Hoaxy is stronger
- Best-in-class diffusion visualisation. Hoaxy's network graphs — accounts as nodes, retweets/replies/mentions as edges, plotted against a share-over-time trend — made the anatomy of a viral claim legible at a glance. BSmeter offers nothing comparable.
- It surfaced the automation layer. Botometer-derived bot scores coloured directly onto the graph let researchers see whether a narrative was organic or amplified — a real analytical capability BSmeter simply does not have.
- Free, open source, and academically rigorous. Built by Filippo Menczer's team at Indiana University with published research behind it, Hoaxy served journalists, fact-checkers and researchers for eight years, and its methods live on in OSoMeNet.
Anyone watching a video, Reel or podcast who wants to know whether the claims being made are actually true — with sources, in real time, on any topic.
Researchers, journalists and analysts studying how a narrative propagated across accounts and whether bots amplified it. Since Hoaxy's retirement, that work belongs in OSoMeNet, its official successor from the same Indiana University team.
The verdict
These tools never competed. Hoaxy mapped the spread of a claim across a social network and deliberately stopped short of judging it; BSmeter judges the claims inside a video and has no view of the network at all. If diffusion mapping is what you need, BSmeter is not your answer — go to OSoMeNet, which the OSoMe team built to carry Hoaxy's work forward after its July 2025 retirement. If you want to know whether the video in front of you is telling the truth, that's BSmeter. Researchers studying a viral video will reasonably want both: OSoMeNet for how it travelled, BSmeter for whether it holds up.
BSmeter vs Hoaxy: FAQ
Is BSmeter a Hoaxy alternative?▾
Not a direct one, and we'd rather be straight with you than sell you the wrong tool. Hoaxy visualised how claims spread across social networks; BSmeter fact-checks claims spoken inside videos and podcasts. If you came here because Hoaxy went offline and you want its network graphs back, the honest recommendation is OSoMeNet — the Observatory on Social Media's own successor tool, built by the same Indiana University team, which inherits Hoaxy's diffusion-mapping functionality. BSmeter is the right pick only if your real question was 'is this claim true?' rather than 'how did this claim travel?'
What happened to Hoaxy? Is it still available?▾
OSoMe retired Hoaxy in July 2025 after roughly eight years, and hoaxy.osome.iu.edu now redirects to OSoMeNet. This wasn't a failure — Hoaxy depended heavily on Twitter's free API, which was subsequently withdrawn, and OSoMe folded its capabilities into a unified tool that covers platforms including Bluesky, Mastodon and TikTok. It was an excellent tool, and its lineage continues.
Can BSmeter show me who spread a claim, or detect bot amplification?▾
No. BSmeter has no diffusion network mapping and does no account-level bot scoring — that was Hoaxy's territory and is now OSoMeNet's. What BSmeter does detect is deepfake and AI-generated media signals in the video itself, plus logical fallacies in the argument, and it surfaces relevant viewer comments in sync with playback. Useful, but a different layer of the problem entirely: BSmeter looks at the content, Hoaxy looked at the crowd.