The News Integrity Initiative is born, funded with $14 million by tech bigwigs, to fight the scourge of fake news
Facebook, Wikipedia and Mozilla, but also universities and non-profit organizations around the world are declaring war on the misinformation that infests the web. The goal is to promote research, projects and events in order to raise awareness and educate the public about online information based on a solid foundation of truth and fairness.
Facebook is among the founding members of the News Integrity initiative, along with Mozilla, Betaworks, AppNexus and several foundations in the United States. Among the leading figures in the project are also Jimmy Wales - founder of Wikipedia - UNESCO, the European Journalism Center and French, German and Danish universities and journalism schools. The consortium will be managed totally independently by the School of Journalism at the City University of New York. The impetus for the birth of the project comes from the numerous scandals, but in particular from the one that hit the recent U.S. presidential elections.
Stop to fake news
To end up in the eye of the storm, above all, Facebook and Google, accused of not being able to counteract hoaxes and false and biased news. The two giants have quickly run for cover trying to intensify controls and initiatives to stem the phenomenon of "fake news". The Mountain View company has joined "First Draft News" in collaboration with other media, while the world's most popular social network has developed a filter, still being tested in Germany and the States, to identify and block false and misleading news.
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