Topic maps are not constrained to report “true facts.”
The Topic Maps Data Model (TMDM, 5.3.1 Subjects and topics) states:
A subject can be anything whatsoever, regardless of whether it exists or has any other specific characteristics, about which anything whatsoever may be asserted by any means whatsoever. In particular, it is anything about which the creator of a topic map chooses to discourse. (emphasis in the original)
Which is fortunate for topic map authors who are tracking the false claims that NSA surveillance has prevented 54 terrorist attacks.
Claim on “Attacks Thwarted” by NSA Spreads Despite Lack of Evidence by Justin Elliott and Theodoric Meyer, reports:
Earlier this month, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., pressed Alexander on the issue at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
“Would you agree that the 54 cases that keep getting cited by the administration were not all plots, and of the 54, only 13 had some nexus to the U.S.?” Leahy said at the hearing. “Would you agree with that, yes or no?”
“Yes,” Alexander replied, without elaborating.
…
“We’ve heard over and over again the assertion that 54 terrorist plots were thwarted” by the two programs, Leahy told Alexander at the Judiciary Committee hearing this month. “That’s plainly wrong, but we still get it in letters to members of Congress, we get it in statements. These weren’t all plots and they weren’t all thwarted. The American people are getting left with the inaccurate impression of the effectiveness of NSA programs.”
To track the spread of false facts, see the excellent visualization in How the NSA’s Claim on Thwarted Terrorist Plots Has Spread by By Sisi Wei, Theodoric Meyer and Justin Elliott.
With a topic map you could connect the spreaders of those lies with other lies they have spread on the same subject, other lies they have spread and their relationships to others who spread lies.
The NSA may be accidentally tracking terrorists every now and again.
What do you say to tracking the polluters of public policy discussions?