#8 - Misinformation and Fact Checking

 Combating misinformation around the world

  Following an election year and as we are cleaning up the mess that the Coronavirus pandemic made, misinformation is at an all time high in the United States. Conspiracy theories, fake news, and hateful messages that have no truth behind them have become the norm for most of social media around the country. While it can be easy to sometimes feel as if the United States is the only country experiencing these problems, the issue of misinformation is actually happening all over the world. Because of this, Reuters has announced its plans to expand its efforts in combating misinformation in Iraq and Israel in a partnership with Facebook.

    The Reuters' Fact Check Unit, that over the last year has launched fact checking initiatives in multiple countries and through an e-course on detecting manipulated media in 16 languages, is now expanding its expertise in Arabic and Hebrew. Partnering with Facebook and Instagram, Reuters will be investigating claims on both sites and will publish its findings on its fact check web page as well as flag any false media on Facebook. Keren Goldshlager, of the Facebook company says, "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.”

    I think Reuters' efforts to reduce and stop the spread of misinformation globally is a great initiative. I especially like how they are partnering with Facebook and Instagram because social media has made it so easy for false or misleading information to be spread quickly and widely. My hope is that this effort, along with others, will help reduce the spread of misinformation and will push people to actually become educated on certain topics in order to spread accurate and true information. 

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