Google teams up with 'Shakti' to combat misinformation ahead of General Elections

Ahead of the general elections, Google has announced its partnership with Shakti, an Indian fact-checking collective, to help news publishers detect and debunk misinformation.

Shakti is a consortium of news publishers and fact checkers in India, working together to aid the early detection of online misinformation, including deep fakes, and to create a common repository that news publishers can use to tackle the challenges of misinformation at scale.

Shakti will be driven by DataLEADS, in collaboration with the Misinformation Combat Alliance, The Quint, VishvasNews, Boom, Factly, and Newschecker, with support from the Google News Initiative.

Google said, “Starting today until the conclusion of the General Elections in India, the project will focus on connecting independent fact checkers and Indian language publishers, giving them a collaborative platform to share fact checks, research resources and alerts on elections-related viral misinformation and deep fakes, saving crucial time.

“Fact-checks in multiple Indian languages and formats, including videos, will be shared and amplified via partnering news publishers, ensuring they reach a wider set of language users and diverse audiences across the country,” it added,

The Fact-Checking Collective will prioritise publishers producing original news in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi.

Syed Nazakat, Founder and CEO, DataLEADS, said, "We are proud to work with India's leading fact-checking organizations and news publishers to spearhead Shakti, especially at a time when deepfakes are being increasingly used for disinformation purposes. Amidst a complex information landscape, with the elections round the corner, the Collective is a crucial intervention towards building a robust fact-checking ecosystem to safeguard the democratic processes. We are honored and excited to partner with Google News Initiative to build this important consortium."

Bharat Gupta, President, Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA), and CEO, Jagran New Media, commented, "In an era where digital information flows faster than ever, the need to empower people with trustworthy and credible information has never been more critical. 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."

Ritu Kapur, Co-Founder and Managing Director, The Quint, added, “Mis - and disinformation is proliferating at an alarming pace, aided by technology and fuelled and funded by those who stand to gain by it. 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. Google News Initiative and DataLEADS’ initiative towards building a collaboration between fact checkers and news publishers is a much needed step in this direction”

Info@BestMediaInfo.com