Facebook expands fact-checking initiative to new countries
San Francisco, June 22 : Facebook has announced to expand its fact-checking programme to new countries that aims to fight spread of fake news on its platform.
The social media giant now has the fact-checking programme running in 14 countries and plans to scale to more countries by the end of the year.
"These certified, independent fact-checkers rate the accuracy of stories on Facebook, helping us reduce the distribution of stories rated as false by an average of 80 per cent," Tessa Lyons, Product Manager at Facebook, said in a blog post on Thursday.
In India, Facebook already is in partnership with a Mumbai-based fact checking organisation called Boom.
Like other Facebook fact-checking partners, Boom is certified through the International Fact-Checking Network, a non-partisan international fact checking network at Poynter.
Facebook has also expanded its test to fact-check photos and videos to four countries.
"The test includes those that are manipulated (a video that is edited to show something that did not really happen) or taken out of context (a photo from a previous tragedy associated with a different, present day conflict)," the company said.
Machine learning is helping Facebook identify duplicates of debunked stories.
"We're going to start working with our fact-checking partners to use Schema.orgas aClaim Review', an open-source framework used by various technology companies and fact-checking organisations," Lyons said.
To help curb foreign interference in public discourse, Facebook said it is going to use Machine Learning to help identify and demote foreign Pages that are likely to spread financially-motivated hoaxes to people in other countries.
In April, Facebook announced a new elections research commission to help provide independent research about the role of social media in elections, as well as democracy more generally.
"We're currently working with the commission to develop privacy-protected data sets, which will include a sample of links that people engage with on Facebook," the company added.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
UP court rejects plea seeking Rahul Gandhi's voice sample in defamation case
Sultanpur (UP) (PTI): A local MP/MLA court on Saturday rejected a plea seeking a voice sample of Rae Bareli MP Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case filed by a BJP functionary against the Congress leader, and posted the matter for next hearing on May 11.
The plea, filed by BJP leader Vijay Mishra through his counsel Santosh Kumar Pandey, had sought Gandhi's voice sample for a forensic test to compare it with an audio clip.
After the petition was dismissed, Pandey said they would file a revision plea before the sessions court against the order.
The court rejected the plea after hearing the arguments of both sides, including Gandhi's counsel Kashi Prasad Shukla.
The matter dates back to 2018 when Mishra, a local BJP leader, filed a defamation suit over Gandhi’s alleged objectionable remarks targeting Amit Shah while campaigning for the Karnataka Assembly elections.
After five years of legal proceedings, the court issued a warrant against Gandhi in December 2023.
The Rae Bareli MP surrendered before the court in February 2024, and was granted bail on two sureties of Rs 25,000 each by a special magistrate.
On July 26 last year, the Congress leader recorded his statement before the court, claiming innocence and calling the case a political conspiracy.
Earlier this year, multiple hearings were postponed due to a strike by lawyers and the ill-health of Gandhi’s counsel.
