Facebook, Google Join Hands To Combat Fake News In France Ahead Of Elections

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Giant social media site Facebook and search engine, Google has joined hands with new organzations to fight against fake news. As per reports, the two internet biggies are trying to bring forth a latest fact checking tool to remove fake news in France. The step has been taken to tackle the country's upcoming presidential election.

Earlier, news agencies and social media sites came under the fire during the US presidential election as it became clear that the sites had published several fake news reports. Facebook, recently said it would work with eight news agencies in France such as BFM TV, Agence France-Presse (AFP) as well as newspapers such as Le Monde and L'Express to reduce the chance of posting any fake news on its platform.

As Reuters reported, Facebook, the biggest social media site has over 24 million users across France that is more than third of the entire country's population. It has also confirmed that it would allow users to flag fake news on the networking site so that the news published could be checked by the news agencies or the partner organizations.

Interestingly, Facebook has also claimed that any news that has been flagged as fake by two of the news organizations would be tagged including an icon to show the news might be fake. Apart from this, Facebook is also involved in a different initiative driven by Google to tackle fake news, according to CNET.

The search engine giant, Google has termed it as CrossCheck and allows users to submit links that require verification to a trustworthy website that allows investigation on the news. Almost seventeen French newsrooms have till now joined the drive against fake news. It includes big names such as French public national television broadcaster and AFP.

Apart from France, Facebook is also running a fake news check in Germany, where several government officials have showed concern over fake news circulating online. In US, the social media giant has mentioned that people would find it easier in the future to flag fake news. It has also revealed plans of working with news agencies such as ABC, Associated Press and Snopes.