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Social networks, media outlets join tech firms to tackle fake news

Xinhua, September 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

A number of social networks and traditional media outlets have joined some technology companies to form a network tasked to launch a collaborative verification platform and create a voluntary code of practice against fake news.

Jenni Sargent, managing director of First Draft News, posted on the website that over 30 organisations agreed to work as a partner network of the First Draft Coalition to "tackle issues of trust and truth in reporting information that emerges online."

"We live in a time when trust and truth are issues that all newsrooms, and increasingly the social platforms themselves, are facing," Sargent wrote on Tuesday, citing Kath Viner's writing in July as Editor-in-Chief of The Guardian, a British national daily newspaper, about the ways technology is disrupting the truth that "in the news feed on your phone, all stories look the same - whether they come from a credible source or not."

Confirmed partners of the network, according to Sargent, include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, the New York Times, the Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, CNN, ABC News of Australia, AJ+, ProPublica, Agence France-Presse (AFP), Channel 4 News, the Telegraph, France Info, Breaking News, Les Décodeurs, International Business Times UK, Eurovision News Exchange, SAM, Aljazeera Media Network, Reveal project, InVID project, Euronews, Sourcefabric, WITNESS, Amnesty International, European Journalism Centre, American Press Institute, International Fact Checking Network, Duke Reporters' Lab.

"Each partner is committed to sharing knowledge, developing policies and devising training in how journalists use the social web to find and report news," said Sargent.

Formed in June 2015 with support from Google News Lab, the First Draft Coalition claims to have worked to raise awareness and standards around the use of newsworthy information and eyewitness media sourced from the social web. On its website, the coalition hihglights a collection of articles and case studies offering best practice advice and guidance for handling eyewitness media.

As there is a thriving community of specialists who have developed and honed social news gathering and verification skills, Sargent noted, the First Draft Partner Network will create "a feedback loop" for representatives from each social media platform to connect with journalists and develop ideas for ways to streamline the verification process, improve the experience of eyewitnesses and increase news literacy among social media users. Enditem