Plagiarism Software Used to Discredit Academics and Public Figures
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Plagiarism-detection software is being used by right-wing activists and media outlets to uncover unattributed text in the work of academics and public figures to discredit them.
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Products from company Turnitin dominate the academic plagiarism-checking market and can reveal matching text that could indicate plagiarism.
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Younger academics who had their work checked by this software already are less vulnerable, but it could uncover issues in older works.
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The software is making large-scale plagiarism searches easier than ever before, leading to more such accusations.
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Those in academia think using the tools mainly to punish or discredit people in this way goes against their intended purpose of supporting academic integrity.