Google takes on fake news with 'Fact Check' tags in Search and News
Google has launched a new feature on Search and News which shows a "Fact Check" label for certain links, indicating whether a third-party fact-checking organization has found the story factual or not.
The company initially rolled out the feature in a few countries in Oct. 2016, but is now rolling it out globally, in all languages.
So now, you'll see a "Fact Check" tag in your Google search results telling you which claim is being checked, who made it, who did the fact check and a short summary of the fact check, like "mostly true" or "false."
And on Google News, articles that have been checked for facts will be labelled "Fact Check."
In practice, the tag will only show up on some stories -- those that have been fact-checked by organizations such as PolitiFact and Snopes. Furthermore, Google says that on some search pages you might get conflicting results, as different fact-checking sites may have judged the same page differently.
If you're a publisher and want to be included in the program, there's a couple of rules you must adhere to; plus, Google will only include publishers that are "algorithmically determined to be an authoritative source of information".
This is an important step in Google's fight against fake news. Both Facebook and Google have been taking the fake news problem seriously following the U.S. elections in Nov. 2016. In Dec. 2016, Facebook started letting users report stories as "fake news," which flags them for review by third-party fact-checking organizations. And in Jan. 2017, Google started expunging fake news publishers from its AdSense network.
Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car. His ultimate goal is to know something about everything.
