Major social media companies and news organizations have started an initiative to prevent fake news stories from affecting France’s imminent presidential election.
The project, dubbed “Cross Check,” includes participation from Facebook and Google, who will work with French press, including L’Express and Le Monde, to minimize the existence and impact of fake news during the country’s election process.
Fake news was considered to have influenced the US presidential election, though a consensus on who the pandemonium favored was never reached. Facebook and Google were among the companies in the US who faced heat—notably only after Donald Trump won the election—for not doing enough to filter out politically oriented misinformation.
Facebook Built a Censorship Tool to Appeal to China, and Mark Zuckerberg Approves
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg during the keynote address at the F8 Facebook Developer Conference Tuesday, April 12, 2016, in San Francisco. Facebook says people who use its Messenger chat service will soon be able to order flowers, request news articles and talk with businesses by sending them direct text messages. At its annual conference for software developers, Zuckerberg said the company is releasing new tools that businesses can use to build "chat bots," or programs that talk to customers in conversational language. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg)