Photograph — MobileSyrup

COVID-19 has affected several industries in a variety of ways, and the media is not exempt. As members of the fourth estate do their best to keep the world informed amidst the pandemic, their hard work is debased by the proliferation of fake news and misinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic. To tackle this, today being the International Fact-Checking Day, Google announces that it is providing $6.5 million in funding to fact-checkers and nonprofits fighting misinformation around the world.

Through its Google News Initiative (GNI), Google is providing the funds to support media outlets and fact-checkers working to combat misinformation around the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. Google will be supporting Africa Check in Nigeria, and Data Leads in partnership with BOOM Live in India to leverage data from Question Hub. This will be complemented by an effort to train 1,000 journalists across India and Nigeria to spot health misinformation. 

Google’s online resources are also being updated to support the vital work journalists are doing and the GNI Training Center has tools for data journalism and verification in 16 languages, with a global team of Teaching Fellows delivering workshops entirely online in 10 languages.

Alexios Mantzarlis, News and Information Credibility Lead, Google News Initiative News Lab said, “Health authorities have warned that an overabundance of information can make it harder for people to obtain reliable guidance about the coronavirus pandemic. Helping the world make sense of this information requires a broad response involving scientists, journalists, public figures, technology platforms and many others.”

Some other media outlets and nonprofits around the world which will receive support through the Google News Initiative (GNI) include First Draft, a nonprofit that is providing an online resource hub, Full Fact and Maldita.es, which will coordinate efforts in Europe focused on countries with the most cases, CORRECTIV in Germany, LatamChequea, coordinated by Chequeado, in the Spanish-speaking world and Latin America, the collaborative verification project Comprova in Brazil, SciLine, based at the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the Australian Science Media Centre, creators of Scimex.org among others. 

“We also want to do more to highlight fact-check articles that address potentially harmful health misinformation more prominently to our users and we are experimenting with how to best include a dedicated fact check section in the COVID-19 Google News experience. Already, we have made Google Trends data readily available in localized pages with embeddable visualizations,” Mantzarlis said.

Reporters across the globe need to understand how the world is handling the virus and the information needs of different demographics. Local Google Trends data is available to help journalists, fact-checkers, health organizations and local authorities to identify topics that people are searching for and where there might be a gap in the availability of good information online. Unanswered user questions can provide useful insights to fact-checkers and health authorities about content they may want to produce.

Before now, Facebook in partnership with Poynter Institute-based International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), had pledged over a million-dollar grant to distribute to 13 fact-checking organizations around the world. The grant will fund projects that include but are not limited to “translated fact checks, debunked content in different formats and also help public authorities receive reliable information to better communicate about COVID-19.”

Media organizations like the AFP, Reuters, and the Associated Press are also working to combat misinformation by rating and downgrading false content in news feeds so that it is seen by fewer people.

In related news, here’s a guide to avoiding misinformation during this pandemic.

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