Coronavirus Fact-checking Groups Get $6.5 Million Donation From Google

Google is putting some much-needed cash in the hands of organizations working overtime to get accurate information to the public around the coronavirus as rumor, hoaxes and false claims abound. The tech giant’s Google News Initiative is giving $6.5 million to a number of nonprofit, fact-checking outlets in the U.S., Europe and South America, like First Draft, Comprova, Full Fact, Maldita and Correctiv. Others are PolitiFact, Latam Chequea, Kaiser Health News and the International Fact-checking Network.  All of the organizations have been offering guides for newsrooms and the public to identify false information regarding the spread outside China of the coronavirus and debunking hoaxes and rumors related to the disease that have unsurprisingly flooded social media and e-mail inboxes. From fake “recordings” of political leaders discussing the virus to incendiary e-mail chain letters to rumors the coronavirus is “airborne,” even claims that Vladimir Putin released lions on the streets of Russia to enforce a coronavirus lockdown there, fact-checkers have been busy the last few weeks. And in order for Google — a first stop for billions of people looking for information — to be a reliable resource that trades in fact, it needs authoritative groups to weed out false information on the

Follow WWD on Twitter or become a fan on Facebook.

from WWDWWD https://ift.tt/3bKIkBE