As India is set to witness general elections in a few months, the Google News Initiative has launched Shakti - India Election Fact-Checking Collective that will aim to empower and enable news organisations to tackle mis/disinformation.
It will serve as a consortium of news outlets and fact-checkers to collaborate and enable them to detect online mis/disinformation early, including deepfakes, on social media platforms. The collective will also help in amplifying the reach of fact-check stories in local languages.
This network of organisations will be spread across India and will be driven by DataLEADS in collaboration with the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA), Boom, Factly, Vishvas News, Newschecker and The Quint.
Bharat Gupta, President of MCA and CEO of Jagran New Media, spoke about the collective and mentioned about the importance of putting out credible and trustworthy information to empower people.
"The strategic partnership of MCA with the Google News Initiative and DataLEADS will empower different demographics, helping individuals with credible and fact-checked information at the grassroots level, so that they can make the most informed choices during the elections and beyond. MCA's fact-checking members aim to debilitate and disarm the agents of disinformation by using a combination of high-integrity journalism and useful technologies against emerging threats to democracy.""Bharat Gupta, President of MCA and CEO of Jagran New Media
The project will focus on connecting independent fact-checkers and language publishers to give them a platform to share fact-checks and alerts on elections-related viral misinformation and deepfakes.
The Quint's Co-Founder and Managing Director, Ritu Kapur highlighted the need to combat the proliferation of mis/disinformation that is being aided by technology.
"The only way to combat the malaise is to join forces as fact checkers and news publishers. Not just to fact check that which has gone viral, but to prebunk and inoculate the same digital highways that spread fake information, with media literacy and relevant information. We need to work with our audiences so they can make well informed decisions as voters in a democracy."Ritu Kapur, Co-Founder and Managing Director of The Quint
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