In an effort to fight fake news, Facebook and Twitter has joined a coalition of media agencies and tech groups that source and report stories from social media.
First Draft Coalition is a Google-backed venture that was created for effectively stopping the spread of rumours and create verified news through dedicated research and collaboration.
First Draft Coalition was formed in June 2015 with the backing of Google
Besides Facebook and Twitter, other partners in the network include YouTube, the New York Times, BuzzFeed News, the Washington Post, CNN, ABC News of Australia, ProPublica, AFP, The Telegraph, France Info, Breaking News, Amnesty International, European Journalism Centre, American Press Institute and International Fact Checking Network.
“The First Draft partner network represents an important opportunity for the news industry to work together on best practices, trainings, research and more,” says Áine Kerr, Manager of Journalism Partnerships at Facebook
The partner network is open to all news and technology organisations.
A coalition such as this was formed to crackdown on the reporting of news gathered from social media. Fake news publishers are taking advantage of how people read and share news. And news outlets often overlook the authenticity and accuracy of stories, publishing fabricated stories that often spread violence, terrorism and a variety of rumours.
“Filtering out false information can be hard. Even if news organisations only share fact-checked and verified stories, everyone is a publisher and a potential source,” Jenni Sargent, managing director of First Draft, 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 organisations.”
The First Draft Coalition will also work to streamline the verification process, improve the experience of eyewitnesses and increase news literacy amongst social media users.
First Draft clarifies that it does not feature any sponsored content and editorial decisions and recommended tools, platforms will not be influenced by funding partnerships.
The First Draft website provides case studies and analysis authored by members of the coalition, in addition to a library of free training resources for use in the newsroom.