Reuters, the world's largest multimedia news provider, announced today it is expanding its efforts to combat misinformation around the world with the launch of fact-checking initiatives in Iraq and Israel, in partnership with Facebook.
The Reuters Fact Check unit will now review content from Facebook and Instagram users in Iraq and Israel, expanding its media verification expertise in Arabic and Hebrew, in addition to existing verification in English and Spanish. Reuters will investigate claims shared on both platforms, publish its findings on the Reuters Fact Check webpage and flag false or misleading information to Facebook.
"As misinformation continues to intensify globally, particularly amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Reuters Fact Check team remains vigilant in its work to verify content and identify inaccuracies. In expanding our work across regions in the Middle East, we aim to reduce potentially inaccurate and harmful posts for these communities," said Hazel Baker, Head of UGC Newsgathering, Reuters.
"We're committed to fighting the spread of misinformation online and building on our fact-checking program by expanding our partnership with Reuters to the Middle East. Our goal is to reduce the distribution of misinformation on our platforms, showing warning labels to people who come across fact-checked content and notifications before they try to share it." - Keren Goldshlager, News Integrity Partnerships, Facebook
Over the last year, Reuters has launched multiple efforts to spot misinformation and manipulated content on social media, including fact-checking initiatives in the United States, United Kingdom and Singapore and an e-course on detecting manipulated media in 16 languages.
Reuters also continues to partner with National Association of Media Literacy Educators (NAMLE) on a variety of programs, including building an educational resource to help users identify misinformation on coronavirus; hosting Media Literacy Week events by bringing together journalists, students and educators to explore the ever-growing information landscape, identifying media manipulation and strengthening students' fact-checking skills; and offering students and classrooms grant and mentorship opportunities via a contest during Media Literacy Week.
[Reuters PR blog post]
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