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The first round of the French presidential election is due to be held in April. So it\u2019s no coincidence\u00a0that Google and Facebook are\u00a0stepping up efforts locally to combat the circulation of so-called fake news<\/a>\u00a0as the democratic\u00a0drum beat\u00a0cranks up \u2014 partnering on\u00a0a collaborative initiative aimed at combating the spread of disinformation online.<\/p>\n Google, via its News Lab arm<\/a>, is\u00a0backing a collaborative verification platform\u00a0called CrossCheck<\/a>, that will\u00a0launch in France on\u00a0February 27 and continue through the French elections \u2014 bringing together a raft of local media companies to power\u00a0a website\u00a0where members of the public can report content they believe to be\u00a0dubious, or ask questions for CrossCheck\u2019s\u00a0media partners to respond to. The tech companies will be\u00a0providing data and tools\u00a0to help spot potential viral\u00a0fakes pertaining to the election.<\/p>\n The Cross Check project is led by First Draft News<\/a>, a not-for-profit which counts Google\u2019s News Lab as a founding partner, and describes its mission as\u00a0the\u00a0development of tools and training to \u201cimprove practices in the ethical sourcing, verification and reporting of stories that emerge online\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe public will be encouraged to participate by submitting questions and links to disputed sites and social content for CrossCheck to investigate. These questions will all be listed and answered on a dedicated CrossCheck website,\u201d says an explainer on the website<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cCrossCheck brings together expertise from media and technology industries to ensure hoaxes, rumors and false claims are swiftly debunked, and misleading or confusing stories are accurately reported. With the French presidential election as its primary focus, journalists from organizations across France will work together to find and verify content circulating publicly online, whether it is photographs, videos, memes, comment threads or\u00a0news sites,\u201d it adds.<\/p>\n There are currently seventeen\u00a0media partners for Cross Check \u2014 including: AFP (Agence France-Presse), BuzzFeed News, France M\u00e9dias Monde (via les Observateurs de France 24), France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions, Global Voices, Lib\u00e9ration, La Provence, Les Echos, La Voix du Nord, Le Monde, Nice-Matin, Ouest-France, Rue89 Bordeaux, Rue89Lyon, Rue89 Strasbourg, Storyful and StreetPress \u2014 who also helped design the vetting process. (Additional newsrooms and students\u00a0wanting to join the project are asked to email crosscheck@firstdraftnews.com by February 10 for more information.)<\/p>\n \u201cEach participating newsroom will contribute their own experience, resources and regional knowledge to speed and strengthen the verification process, and to ensure that accurate reports reach citizens across the country and beyond,\u201d the website\u00a0adds. \u201cCrossCheck partners, including a number of international news organizations, will ultimately make use of these reports in their own articles, programs and social media output.\u201d<\/p>\n Facebook\u2019s contribution to the effort will include\u00a0supporting the vetting\u00a0platform through \u201cdedicated tools and media literacy efforts that will\u00a0help to explain the verification process and keep relevant audiences up to date with confirmed and disputed information relating to the election\u201d.<\/p>\n Specifically it will be providing CrossCheck partners\u00a0with access to a tool called\u00a0CrowdTangle<\/a> to help with early discovery and monitoring of social content relevant to the election. It will also be helping to promote CrossCheck reports and resources on its platform to \u201crelevant audiences\u201d, through digital literacy campaigns \u201chelping to explain the verification process and keeping the voting public up to date with confirmed and disputed information relating to the election\u201d, according to a Google press release.<\/p>\n Google Trends is another of the tools that will be used by partners in the effort \u2014 feeding in data about searches about candidates and campaign claims in real-time from across France.<\/p>\n Other tools being deployed as part of the Cross Check initiative include:<\/p>\n According to Les Echo<\/a> Facebook has today\u00a0also\u00a0launched its own set of anti-fake news measures on its platform locally \u2014 letting users in France report content they believe to be fake.<\/p>\n The\u00a0company expanded its fake news fight to Germany last month<\/a>, another country with elections due this year. In Germany it\u2019s partnering with local checking organization\u00a0Correctiv<\/a>\u00a0to help try to identify and flag dubious content being distributed on its platform.<\/p>\n While in December<\/a> the social media giant began flagging and down-ranking fake news on its platform in the U.S., following a storm of criticism regarding how it had allowed patently incorrect articles to be widely shared during the U.S. presidential elections last year.<\/p>\n Le Figaro<\/a>\u00a0says\u00a0Facebook\u2019s media partners in France will vet any crowdreports flagged by local\u00a0Facebook users, and if at least two of the partners agree content\u00a0is questionable their\u00a0verdict will be reflected by badging the content on Facebook with a pictogram. Badged content will also link to media partners\u2019 verdicts on it.<\/p>\n A recently published academic study suggests contextualizing disinformation\u00a0with specific warnings can help defuse its potency to sway opinion<\/a>\u00a0online.<\/p>\n Facebook users still wanting to share\u00a0dubious content will be shown a warning about its disputed status. The visibility of questionable content will also be down-ranked\u00a0in the Facebook News Feed.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve reached out to Facebook for confirmation\u00a0of\u00a0its anti-fake news efforts in France and will update this story with any response.\u00a0Update:\u00a0<\/strong>Facebook has said it will be working with the following organizations in France as its third party fact-checkers: AFP, BFMTV, L\u2019Express, France M\u00e9dias Monde, France T\u00e9l\u00e9visions, Lib\u00e9ration, Le Monde and 20 Minutes.<\/p>\n Google News Lab and First Draft News previously worked together on a joint initiative\u00a0in the US, called Electionland, aimed at\u00a0surfacing and reporting evidence of voter suppression around the US election in November.<\/p>\n In a statement about the new collaboration in France, Google News Lab\u2019s lead in France, David Dieudonn\u00e9, said:\u00a0<\/em>\u201cIt\u2019s a natural next step to extend this uniquely effective and collaborative approach with newsrooms across France to cover one of Europe\u2019s most-watched elections. We\u2019re incredibly proud of this partnership and the new model of collaborative journalism it\u2019s pioneering.\u201d<\/p>\n While Facebook has taken perhaps the most flak<\/a> (fairly or unfairly) of any of the tech giants over how its platform has helped encourage the spread of fake news,\u00a0Google has also faced major criticism for its AdSense ad placement program providing a financial incentive for third parties to create\u00a0fake news in order to drive clicks and generate advertising revenue. And in November<\/a>\u00a0Mountain View made some policy changes to try to eject fake news purveyors from its ad placement network. Facebook also amended its equivalent (the Facebook Audience Network) at the same\u00a0time.<\/p>\n\n