Nothing in the information era is more dangerous than false information and phony news. Since the Internet’s inception, people and groups have had many options for consuming and sharing information. Sharing knowledge is important, but bad information online that poses as expert guidance can harm our ability to advance as a society.
The search engine giant Google has revealed its initiatives to combat false information in India through its products, programs, and collaborations ahead of International Fact-Checking Day, which takes place on April 2.
According to the Alphabet-owned business, its goal is to organize knowledge and make it widely available and helpful. The business claimed that it takes its duty to customers, who entrust it with their information, very seriously. Google claims that in 2023, disinformation trends reached an all-time peak in India, which highlights the seriousness of the problem.
“Google’s goal is to put the world’s knowledge in order and make it accessible to everyone and helpful. Additionally, we are aware that not all of the material on the internet is trustworthy or dependable.
At Google, we take seriously our obligation to our customers, who entrust us with their confidence and depend on us to meet all of their informational requirements. This goal is undermined by the epidemic of online disinformation, according to Google’s blog article.
Google has launched the About This Result feature, which will enable users to assess the information and comprehend its source, to combat false information. The function is accessible worldwide and is offered in nine Indian languages.
Hindi, Tamil, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Punjabi are included in the function. Three stars will now appear next to the majority of the results on the Google Search Results Page for users looking for information in any of the aforementioned languages. Simply tapping on the dots will bring up a new window with details about the outcome, including a description of how Google concluded that the question was relevant.
Google claims that the feature provides more context, allowing users to make more educated choices about the websites they want to explore and assist them in determining which results will be most helpful. According to Google, its efforts to combat disinformation are represented by characteristics that are common to all of its products. Google continued to provide steps for users to take across its products, initiatives, and collaborations on its site.
Google is trying to prioritize material from reliable sources for both Search and YouTube. When someone searches for news-related subjects on YouTube, the Top News area will show results from reliable sources, including news sources.
When significant changes occur, the Breaking News shelf will be visible right away on the desktop. To provide more context, YouTube will also provide a broad variety of information panels, specific events, and subjects, including health-related information.
Google announced that it is also assisting FactShala, a multi-stakeholder network for media literacy that was founded by over 250 journalists and specialists and offers specialized seminars in over 15 languages. To help users successfully identify false information, Google is collaborating with these professionals to create training courses. To support media and community groups in playing with new forms to support media literacy, FactShala will be starting an incubator program. It will also work with 500 schools to conduct a program targeted at young people and first-time voters.
Through its Google News Initiative, Google claimed to have been devoting a substantial amount of resources to promoting high-quality news. To encourage excellent reporting, it is partnering with an entirely new environment. The business asserted that it has provided over 60,000 journalists and media students in India with the training they need to disprove internet disinformation since 2016.
Google used the GNI India instruction Network and its Teaching Fellows to conduct its instruction. 1200 seminars in over 15 languages were part of the training, which affected 1200 colleges and 1450 newsrooms.
Google launched the GNI Fact Check Academy in 2022. Additionally, Google has launched the GNI PollCheck, a digital training program to assist journalists in compiling interesting tales, in advance of important state elections.
Google stated that it has a variety of internal policies that forbid bad behavior online with policies that cover topics like deception, impersonation, or health misinformation; and we implement these policies effectively to combat malevolent players and safeguard users.
