Fake news continues to be an issue as they flood the internet. Google News shares their plans to curb them from spreading further.
According to their plan layout, the first step toward stopping misleading news articles is to determine the sources' actual country of origin. The search company's system will use its complex algorithms to filter out alleged news websites if they attempt to conceal their origin country.
Honesty Above All
Pages that reportedly misrepresent their content to appear like they are from the United States will no longer come up in search results. Google News apparently believes that this will reduce the number of fake news that has previously misled even other legitimate reporting outlets
Taking The Extra Step For Security
Since last year, multiple reports have caught the attention of both readers and Google itself. SlashGear believes that the public was not prepared for the influx of fake news from foreign sources that pretended to be based in the United States.
Security experts are in agreement that the 2016 U.S. presidential election was greatly affected by Russian intervention wherein reports curated from the Kremlin made its way into social media and apparently misled the public.
The search engine company seems confident that the latest changes to their policies will block future attempts to spread fake news.
Criticized For Spreading Propaganda
After extensive investigations, it was deemed that the lack of intervention from social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook allowed fake news to twist people's opinions. Although Google did not receive as much backlash as the other two, Bloomberg reports that the company acknowledged that Russian agents were able to spread propaganda via YouTube and Google News.
Additionally, Congress met with the lawyers of each of the three companies in the last two months to discuss the Russian involvement during the 2016 U.S. election.
Updated Guidelines Now Available
Google's new policies should not directly affect websites that openly report their actual origin country.
Given the stricter requirements for reports, the public should see lesser fake news come up in search results. What was not indicated, however, is if the company will take real-time action against those in violation of their updated requirements or if it will be done after further investigation.
Additional notes also reiterate that Google News is not meant as a marketing service. Articles submitted must not promote, sell, or monetize. Otherwise, the source website will be excluded from search results.
