Google, Facebook to unveil campaigns against ‘fake news’
SEEMS THE CANADIAN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DOES NOT WANT CANADIANS TO VOICE THEIR OPINIONS ONLY THE PROPAGANDA SPEWED ON MSM LIKE THE CBC PROTECTING THE CORRUPT POLITICAL SYSTEM. COMING TO A SCHOOL NEAR YOU. READ THE FOLLOWING ALARMING ARTICLE.
OTTAWA
DANIEL LEBLANC - Globe & Mail
Google, Facebook to unveil campaigns against ‘fake news’
Google Canada will announce on Tuesday a $500,000 contribution to help educate young Canadians on the importance of news and trustworthy sources of information.
Quiz: What is 'fake news,' and how can you spot it? Try our quiz.
The program will be delivered as part of hundreds of mock elections that will be held in schools in Ontario next year and across Canada in 2019. The NewsWise project is being organized jointly by CIVIX, the group that organizes Student Vote, and the Canadian Journalism Foundation.
"This is an example of the fact we recognize that fake news is a concern to this government, it is a concern to us, and we saw an opportunity to take action," said Google Canada's head of public affairs, Aaron Brindle.
Mr. Brindle said Google cannot stop the spread of fake news by itself, but wants to help Canadians "make informed judgments about the credibility of articles published on sites that appear on Google search results."
CIVIX president Taylor Gunn said the NewsWise program will take the fight against fake news into Canadian schools, in conjunction with mock elections in which students analyze the value of various sources of information.
"What we hope to see is a much more empowered focus on the role of journalism in a healthy democracy, by encouraging news consumption from a variety of sources and understanding what is the purpose of fake news," he said. "This is critical information for an engaged citizenry."
The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) said the state of Canada's democracy is undeniably linked to the health of its media.
"News organizations, platforms, civic-engagement groups and organizations like ours all have a role to play in educating and informing [Canadians between the ages of 9 and 18] on trusted and reliable sources," CJF executive director Natalie Turvey said.
Meanwhile, Facebook is planning an event in the near future to unveil what it calls the Canadian Election Integrity Initiative. The announcement was initially scheduled for Wednesday, but has been pushed back to later in the fall.
Facebook Canada's initiative is a response to a recent federal report that listed key threats to Canada's electoral system, predicting that "multiple hacktivist groups" would use cybercapabilities to influence the 2019 general election.
As part of consultations on Canada's cultural policy, Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly has been in contact with senior officials from Google, Facebook, Twitter and other Internet platforms.
"These meetings were an opportunity to discuss the growing problem of fake news, their impact on our democratic society and the role of digital platforms in supporting access to reliable and local news sources for Canadians," Ms. Joly's director of communications, Christine Michaud, said in a statement.
Alphabet Inc., which owns Google and YouTube, and social-media rival Facebook, dominate the international online ad market. This year, Google is expected to have $73.75-billion (U.S.) in net digital ad revenue worldwide while Facebook is expected to take in $36.29-billion, according to research firm eMarketer.
Liberal MPs have argued that with their revenue and their global reach, the two U.S.-based Internet giants have a responsibility to ensure that the information that they distribute in Canada is reliable.
In particular, Liberal MPs were concerned by the prevalence of fake news during the 2016 American elections, which was widely seen to have targeted Democratic candidates. Liberal MP Hedy Fry, who is the chair of the heritage committee of the House, said the election of U.S. President Donald Trump and the Brexit referendum in Britain show that "people believe what they read."
Google Inc. and Facebook Inc. are set to announce separate measures to fight "fake news" after facing calls from the federal government to protect the political system from the dissemination of misleading information in the media.
"Disinformation, misinformation and fake-news campaigns are a real issue that we need to be alive and alert to," Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould said in an interview. "This is a conversation that we need to have with Canadians, but that we also need to have with companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter, which provide platforms for this information to be disseminated."
LINK TO ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
comment found on article by: NewfieAbroad
"This is laughable when they promote Fake news and have been silencing the alternative media by removing them from google search engine results. Who makes them the authoritarian over what is real and what's not? Oh wait, it's the government. They control the media as well and the media have forgotten how to do its job and how to be an unbiased, objective source of news. No one holds the politicians to task and all the media does is float ideas, see which ones gain traction and then runs with the fabricated story. Who needs proof anymore!! Just say it enough times and people believe it. Sad times... The majority of fake news comes from the mainstream news. Its out there, but people just don't care to look until its too late and they've changed the laws and rewritten history."
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