Global initiative launched to fight fake news

A global alliance of tech industries and academic organisations have unveiled $14-million The News Integrity Initiative to combat the spread of “fake news”, improve public understanding of journalism, promote news literacy and build trust in journalism. The founding funders of the initiative include Facebook, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark’s philanthropic fund, Ford` Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Tow Foundation, AppNexus, Mozilla and Betaworks. City University of New York’s journalism school will coordinate research, projects and events. Fake news has become a serious issue in the U.S. election campaign, when clearly fraudulent stories circulated on social media, potentially swaying some voters. Concerns also have been raised since then about hoaxes and misinformation affecting elections in Europe and rise of click farms to generate revenue from online advertising using made-up news stories.

Month: Current Affairs - April, 2017