FITZ GATE PORTFOLIO COMPANY NEWSGUARD IS ALL OVER THE NEWS FOR HELPING COMBAT DISINFORMATION
NewsGuard featured in the New York Times: NewsGuard aims to be a solution to “conspiracy theories, propaganda and plain old inaccuracies” that “can stump even the most thoughtful readers.” Read the full story from the NYT.
NewsGuard is now integrated into Microsoft Edge mobile browser: This month, Microsoft became the first technology company to integrate NewsGuard: Microsoft made NewsGuard available in its Edge Mobile browser. This is also the first application of NewsGuard for mobile devices and a big step forward in the company’s growth and visibility. Read the press release and further coverage in Forbes. It’s the first step in our path to make the NewsGuard ratings ubiquitous by having them appear whenever someone uses a technology platform (in this case Edge Mobile). And it’s the first iteration of our business model – of having those platforms license our data.
Gallup poll shows NewsGuard ratings are effective in countering misinformation, disinformation and unreliable news: A new Gallup study released earlier this month showed that 89% of users of the NewsGuard browser plugin surveyed by Gallup want social media sites and search engines to integrate NewsGuard ratings and reviews into their news feeds and search results, 91% find the NewsGuard Nutrition Labels helpful, and 90% generally agree with the ratings. Respondents trusted the ratings more because NewsGuard ratings are done by “trained journalists with varied backgrounds.” Read the full press release and additional coverage in WIRED.
Public libraries in the U.S. partner with NewsGuard to advance News Literacy: What do Toledo, Palo Alto, and Hawaii have in common? They all have partnered or are developing partnerships with NewsGuard to advance news literacy among patrons in their public libraries. Our library partners install NewsGuard's extension on public computers and provide printed materials to patrons. In the coming months, we'll continue to work with school districts and librarians on this initiative.
Russian government funded media begin to attack NewsGuard: Propaganda operations have attacked NewsGuard almost daily since Microsoft set the precedent for providing NewsGuard to its users. Folio Magazine reports that after NewsGuard’s boost in visibility this month, we started being attacked by Russia-linked websites such as RT and Sputnik, which are among our red-rated sites.
More than 500 publishers have improved their journalistic practices through NewsGuard’s rating process: Reuters reported that more than 500 websites—almost one quarter of all we’ve rated—have made changes to their journalistic practices as a result of NewsGuard’s rating process. Sites have added clearer disclosure of ownership, added information about content creators, implemented policies for publicly correcting errors, and made other changes that help them meet NewsGuard’s nine journalistic criteria. Some of the outlets include Newsweek, Fortune, Daily Mail, Fast Company, Washington Monthly and Alternet. No strong-arming by NewsGuard here, just the result of our journalists asking simple questions in the course of their reporting.
“An old-school approach”: The Christian Science Monitor also noticed NewsGuard’s efforts to build trust in news online through greater credibility and transparency with our back-to-basics focus on journalism.
Daily Mail improves its NewsGuard rating: NewsGuard received some press attention recently when publishers in the UK noticed that the Daily Mail had originally received a red rating from NewsGuard. We had attempted to seek the Daily Mail’s comment prior to publishing our rating, as we always do when a site gets a negative rating on any of the criteria, but the Daily Mail engaged with us only after the Guardian wrote about our Daily Mail rating. As a result of discussions with the Daily Mail, the website improved its transparency practices and we got more context on some of its editorial standards. As a result, its performance on several of our nine journalistic criteria changed and its rating was upgraded from red to green. This is a reminder that unlike opaque algorithms used by others to suppress certain news brands, our criteria are transparent, and we hope websites will “game” our system by improving their practices. See the editor’s note on the matter on the Daily Mail’s nutrition label, along with coverage by the BBC and Press Gazette, and NiemanLab.
Largest U.S. news trade association encourages Facebook, Google and Twitter to provide NewsGuard ratings and write ups to their users: David Chavern, the President & CEO of the News Media Alliance, noted NewsGuard as a promising tool the tech companies could use to elevate real news over false content in a recent New York Times op-ed.
EU demands more action to combat disinformation: European Commission regulators noted progress by Facebook, Google and Twitter to comply with the Code of Practice on Disinformation ahead of upcoming elections in the Spring, but regulators emphasized that a lot more needs to be done. “We need to go further and faster before May. We don't want to wake up the day after the elections and realize we should have done more,” Julian King, Commissioner for the Security Union, said in a release. Government officials in NewsGuard’s meetings on the continent and in the UK in recent weeks have identified NewsGuard as an added layer of protection for digital platforms and their users, offering an existing tool to the platforms to help their users counter misinformation online.