In partnership with Facebook, Reuters has established a new unit of measurement tasked with identifying misinformation on social media.

As Reuters reported on Feb. 12, social media giant Facebook's Third-Party-Fact-Checking Program and the news outlet have jointly launched a fact-checking initiative in a bid to identify misinformation on social media. Specifically, Reuters will verify information posted on Facebook and Instagram in the run-upwardly to the United states of america elections and later.

Checking user-generated data

Reuter'due south defended unit will assess the authenticity of user-generated media files, headlines and other content in both English language and Spanish. Commenting on the initiative, Jess April, managing director of global partnerships at Reuters, said:

"We are steadfastly recognizing the magnitude of misinformation taking place around the world. It's a growing issue that impacts society daily and it'south a responsibleness for news organizations and platforms to halt the spread of false news."

The initiative was announced on the heels of Reuters' passing the necessary certification by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) on February. vii. Although Reuters is a well-established news organization that had previously produced fact checks, it has non yet produced them on a regular basis for a sustained period of time, wrote Michael Wagner, an IFCN assessor, in the conclusions and recommendations.

"It is the instance that Reuters' political and community activeness policy will non be compliant with IFCN standards, merely information technology should be noted that their policy is realistic and reasonable," Wagner concluded.

U.S. elections dramas

It is no surprise that Facebook decided to perform fact-checking of information posted by users, considering that last year, Facebook constitute itself in the crosshairs of regulatory furor when Cambridge Analytica collected Facebook user data for roughly fifty one thousand thousand individuals without permission, to target them with personalized ads during the 2022 U.S. presidential elections.

In the meantime, the cryptocurrency and blockchain technology community lost a proponent and ally in the American political landscape, Andrew Yang. Yang, an entrepreneur and Autonomous candidate in the U.Southward. 2022 presidential elections, suspended his campaign for president last nighttime. Yang told supporters:

"While there is great piece of work left to be done, you know, I am the math guy, and it is clear this evening from the numbers that we are not going to win this race [...] I am not someone who wants to accept donations and support in a race that nosotros will non win. And so tonight I am announcing I am suspending my campaign for president."