GOOGLE COMMITS $6.5M TO FIGHT MISINFO

Google announced Thursday that it would spend $6.5 million toward fighting the spread of misinformation around the coronavirus pandemic.

Funding will go toward fact-checkers, news organizations and nonprofits around the world. The money will also help certain news outlets expose and track coronavirus misinformation.

“Helping the world make sense of this information requires a broad response, involving scientists, journalists, public figures, technology platforms and many others,” Alexios Mantzarlis, head of news and information credibility at Google’s News Lab, wrote in a blog announcing the funding.

PolitiFact and Kaiser Health News will use some of the funds to expand their fact-checking efforts, while LatamChequea will provide what Mantzarlis described as a “hub” to help coordinate the work of almost two dozen Spanish-language fact-checking groups.

The funds will also go to similar groups in Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom, and to the International Fact-Checking Network, a global advocacy group.