Google has said that it is set to provide funding to the tune of $6.5 million to fact-checkers and nonprofits to fight misinformation on Covid-19 globally. The organisation said that it will provide funds through its Google News Initiative (GNI) to support media outlets and fact-checkers that are working to curb misinformation concerning the spread of Covid-19.
In addition to supporting Africa Check in Nigeria, Google said that it will support the partnership of Data Leads and BOOM Live in India. The organisation also said that it will train 1,000 journalists in Nigeria and India to identify health misinformation. According to Google, its GNI Centre will make available tools for data journalism and verification in 16 languages, with online workshops being delivered by a global team of Teaching Fellows in ten languages.
The News and Information Credibility Lead, Google News Initiative News Lab, Alexios Mantzarlis, in a statement said, ‘Health authorities have warned that an overabundance of information can make it harder for people to obtain reliable guidance about the [Covid-19] pandemic. Helping the world make sense of this information requires a broad response involving scientists, journalists, public figures, technology platforms and many 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. Google’s mission is to organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful’, Mantzarlis added.
Source: This Day
Photo source: Ben Nuttall
