The Trust Project takes on fake news

To combat fake news, Google and Facebook are joining The Trust Project, a nonpartisan initiative to help online users distinguish between truthful information and propaganda, lies and commercial pitches. For instance, starting now all news articles on Facebook will have an icon next to it that you can click to read about the ethics of the publisher’s organization, their standards, their journalists’ backgrounds and their methods. (techcrunch, November 16, 2017, by Sarah Perez)

Originating at Santa Clara University in Silicon Valley, The Trust Project sets transparency for the news industry. A number of news outlets around the world including The Globe and Mail, La Repubblica and The Washington Post are displaying icons that lead to Trust Indicators. The initiative comes at time when only one third of Americans have a great deal or fair amount of trust in the news media. (Business Wire, November 16, 2017)

In the meantime, the Federal Election Commission is targeting ads paid for by foreign powers by agreeing to draft rules for disclosing who pays for small ads on digital platforms. The FEC has been under pressure to deal with Russian social media ads thought to have influenced the 2016 presidential elections. (NPR, November 17, 2017, by Peter Overby)

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