The project is built upon two similar but independent predecessors. One of these is the MTA–DE–SZTE Research Group for Theoretical Linguistics, led by Kertész András. The most important result of this research group's previous two cycles (2012–2017, 2017–2022) is the p-model, a model that is applicable to the plausibility of reasoning. The model was tested on case studies, and was developed by the research group to help researchers examine and assess the argumentative structure of and the data used in scientific theories as well as the reliability of evidence and to handle discrepancies. A portion of the case studies focused on linguistic strategies and phenomena, their results serve as a direct theoretical and methodological precursor of the subprogramme of Science for the Hungarian Language National Programme of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA) titled Linguistic identification of fake news and pseudoscientific views (Álhírek, áltudományos nézetek nyelvészeti azonosítása).

The second predecessor to this project was a student research workshop on the University of Szeged led by Németh T. Enikő. The workshop was formed in September of 2020, following the news and announcements related to the pandemic and seeing the "infodemic" taking shape, in order to help taking on fake news related to COVID-19 by examining fake news and pseudoscientific articles using linguistic methods. The Dugonics Society, the oldest civil organization of Szeged, invited the workshop in December of 2020 to hold a presentation as part of a series of presentations called City and Virus (Város és a vírus) organized by the society. The presentation was titled: Did you know that linguistic researchers are stopping the spread of the (fake news) virus? Fake news and manipulation in relation to COVID-communication (Tudta, hogy a nyelvészkutatók megállíthatják az (álhír)járványok terjedését? Álhír és manipuláció a COVID-kommunikációban) (NÉMETH T. et al. 2020). Following the successful presentation, starting in early 2021, we continued the examination of fake news and pseudoscientific articles in the topic of health and medicine now as a research group and with the help of researchers in the field of linguistics and the SZTE Institute of Informatics, and we started to work on human and automatic fake news detection tools.

We prepared our research proposal for MTA Science for the Hungarian Language by combining the results and resources of the two aforementioned projects at the request of Freund Tamás, the president of MTA. Once our proposal, titled Linguistic identification of fake news and pseudoscientific views (Álhírek, áltudományos nézetek nyelvészeti azonosítása), was evaluated, to our great joy, we were asked to make our project a reality as the IV. subprogramme of the national programme, starting in December of 2022, through November 2026. The project was to be led by the University of Szeged in the form of a consortium with the participation of the University of Debrecen.