Facebook, Twitter join coalition to improve online news
Facebook, Twitter join coalition to improve online news
AFP•September 13, 2016
Washington (AFP) - Facebook, Twitter and news
organizations including Agence France-Presse have joined a coalition of media
and technology groups seeking to filter out online misinformation and improve
news quality on social networks.
First Draft News, which is backed by Google, announced
Tuesday that some 20 news organizations will be part of its partner network to
share information on best practices for journalism in the online age.
Jenni Sargent, managing director of First Draft, said the
partner network will help advance the organization's goal of improving news
online and on social networks.
"Filtering out false information can be hard. Even
if news organizations only share fact-checked and verified stories, everyone is
a publisher and a potential source," she said in a blog post.
"We are not going to solve these problems overnight,
but we're certainly not going to solve them as individual organizations."
Sargent said the coalition will develop training programs
and "a collaborative verification platform," as well as a voluntary
code of practice for online news.
"We live in a time when trust and truth are issues
that all newsrooms, and increasingly the social platforms themselves, are
facing," she said.
"Each partner is committed to sharing knowledge,
developing policies and devising training in how journalists use the social web
to find and report news."
The announcement comes amid concerns over the growing
role of social networks, especially Facebook, in delivering and filtering news,
and sometimes allowing hoaxes and misinformation to proliferate.
The partner network includes Facebook, Twitter, YouTube,
The New York Times, Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, CNN, ABC News of Australia,
ProPublica, AFP, The Telegraph, France Info, Breaking News, Le Monde's Les
Decodeurs, International Business Times UK, Eurovision News Exchange and Al
Jazeera Media Network.
Other organizations in the network include Amnesty
International, European Journalism Centre, American Press Institute,
International Fact Checking Network and Duke Reporters' Lab."
First Draft was formed last year with support from Google
News Lab and has worked with YouTube on verifying user-generated videos, among
other projects.
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