Google Pledges $300 Million USD to Fight Fake News
And to support journalism.
Today tech giant Google announced its plans to invest $300 million USD over the next three years to fight fake news and support journalism. Dubbed the Google News Initiative, the new move will see to accurate journalism while fighting misinformation, help news sites continue to grow from a business perspective, and create new tools to help journalists do their jobs.
According to Google, the company has already tweaked its search algorithms to recognise “misinformation” as well as training its systems to be more accurate when displaying news on YouTube for example. Google has also launched a project called MediaWise — in partnership with Stanford University among others — to help young news readers “distinguish fact from fiction online.” Along with MediaWise, Google will launch an initiative called Disinfo Lab, which will “use computational tools and journalistic oversight to monitor misinformation during elections.” Google mentioned that it is also working to better identify what it calls “synthetic media,” or content that has been algorithmically modified.
Finally, Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer, stated the company is also launching a program called “Subscribe with Google,” which will allow readers to sign up for paid subscriptions from partner publishers with a single click. “This is just the beginning. We want to continue working closely with publishers to experiment on new ways they can reach audiences and produce impactful storytelling,” Mr Schindler said.
Let us know your thoughts on Google’s actions below and in more tech-related news, the iPhone X Plus is rumored for a September release.
