Google commits $29 Million to tackle misinformation and fake news
Google has announced that the company will be committing €25 million ($29 million) to tackle misinformation and fake news as big tech companies face criticism and continuous scrutiny for “failing” to curb the spread of misinformation online.
Google disclosed that the funding to the European Union’s newly established European Media and Information Fund is a five year commitment which will support the work of the European University Institute, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation and the European Digital Media Observatory. Google is the first big tech company to contribute to the fund.
The launch of the European Media and Information Fund will provide grants to researchers, fact-checkers, not-for-profits, and other public interest-oriented organizations working on disinformation research, strengthening media literacy, and fact-checking. The European Digital Media Observatory, a body made up of fact-checkers and academics that was formed by the European Commission last year, will evaluate and select the projects.
Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and Google have been under intense scrutiny for failing to tackle large volumes of misinformation on their platforms that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
FullFact, a UK-based fact-checking organization which is partnering with the tech firms to find new ways to fight disinformation stated: “Bad information ruins lives. In the wake of the US election, we saw how false claims and conspiracy theories directly contributed to assaults on democracy. Internet companies should be held to account by democratic institutions for their policies on misinformation. But more broadly we believe these decisions should be made through open, democratic and transparent processes, rather than by commercial interests.”
Facebook outlined efforts the team had made to counter disinformation, including working with 80 fact-checking organizations and labelling debunked stories. Twitter’s Jack Dorsey shared that to combat misinformation must be linked to “earning trust” from users by focusing on “enhancing transparency, ensuring procedural fairness, enabling algorithmic choice, and strengthening privacy”.
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