Google News just got a useful new tool for fact-checking, just in time for Election Day. The feature will appear in searches for news stories.
The U.S. presidential election has been quite a ride so far, riddled with misinformation, false articles and outright lies, and Google wants to help people get their facts straight instead of believing everything they read online.
Because not everything you find on the internet is true, Google's new "fact check" label will now be prominently displayed in expanded story boxes both on the website and mobile versions of Google News. Other labels such as "highly cited" and "opinion" will also appear.
How Does It Work?
For this fact-checking process, Google relies on its Claim Review to algorithmically determine whether a given story could use a fact check. Sources that "follow the commonly accepted criteria for fact checks" will be highlighted.
"Publishers who create fact-checks and would like to see it appear with the 'Fact check' tag should use that markup in fact-check articles," Google notes, pointing at its help center for more information.
"We're excited to see the growth of the Fact Check community and to shine a light on its efforts to divine fact from fiction, wisdom from spin," adds the company.
The new fact-check feature is currently available for Google News in the United States and the UK.
