Google adds fact checking labels to its images to combat spread of doctored photos – iNews

Posted By on June 24, 2020

Google will start applying fact check labels to the search results in its Images section in a bid to curb the spread of doctored photos contributing to fake news online.

The search giant will display a few lines of contextual information below certain images in the Images section of search and within fact checking articles that contain pictures, the company confirmed in a blog post.

Fact check labels appear on results that come from independent, authoritative sources on the web that meet our criteria, said Harris Cohen, Googles group product manager for search.

These sources rely on ClaimReview, an open method used by publishers to indicate fact check content to search engines.

The application of a fact check wont affect an images ranking within Images, as Googles algorithms are designed to highlight the most relevant, reliable information available, including from sources that provide fact checks, he added.

Doctored photographs are a common element of online conspiracy theory and viral fake news discourses, commonly circulated on social media to spread misinformation to millions of users.

The measure is Googles latest tool in its ongoing efforts to suppress the spread of misinformation across its platforms.

The company hired 10,000 contractors in March 2017 to evaluate its search resultsin terms of relevance in order to improve Googles algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) services in promoting fact and downgrading the prominence of untrue articles masquerading as fact.

Its first fact checking tools for search results were launched the following month, displaying what Google called an authoritative result to search queries prominently at the top of the web page, alongside a summary of the claims and the body which has fact checked it, such as PolitiFact.

Later that month it confirmed it was adjusting its core search engine to counter fake news, updating its algorithms and creating new methods for users to report problematic results.

Weve adjusted our signals to help surface more authoritative pages and demote low-quality content, so that issues similar to the Holocaust denial results that we saw back in December are less likely to appear, Ben Gomes, Googles executive in charge of search, said at the time.

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Google adds fact checking labels to its images to combat spread of doctored photos - iNews

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