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PARIS, Feb. 7 (Xinhua) -- Internet giants Google and Facebook joined a journalism verification project launched Monday in France to help clear out fake news pertaining to the country's upcoming presidential election.
With support from Google News Lab, as well as Facebook's verification tools, the collaborative project named CrossCheck seeks to "help the public make sense of what and who to trust."
"Dedicated tools and media literacy efforts" of Facebook will help with the project's verification process and "keep relevant audience up to date with confirmed and disputed information relating to the election."
The CrossCheck project gathered seventeen French and international news agencies and media groups like AFP, France Medias Monde and BuzzFeed News, as well as the network community called Global Voices, which relies on writers, translators, bloggers and citizen journalists to report on popular topics in citizen media worldwide.
"Each 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," according to a statement released on First Draft News.
The official announcement encouraged the public to submit disputed websites and content on the French presidential election to CrossCheck for further investigation, while final answers would be published on a dedicated website.
Media and technology experts would check out the credibility of certain reports, debunk hoaxes, rumors and false claims, as well as ensure accurate reports on controversial and confusing stories, the statement added.
The French presidential election is slated for April and the project is an attempt to prevent inaccurate and unproven information to influence the election campaign and results.
Social media networks like Facebook and Twitter have been criticized for allegedly propagating fake stories on their platforms during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.
