AAP and Google partner to boost anti-disinformation efforts

The Australian Associated Press (AAP) and Google have partnered to accelerate critical fact-checking in Australia and New Zealand to combat misinformation. On International Fact-Checking Day, AAP announced a new programme to increase its fact-checking capacity, providing accurate and reliable information to over 380 publications in both countries for online users. For the first time, AAP FactCheck will analyse global misinformation trends and make video explainers. They will also translate fact-checks into Arabic, Simplified Chinese, and Vietnamese for local news and social media. New partnership increases speed and quantity of work to get ahead of misinformation trends in other countries before they reach Australia and New Zealand.

AAP CEO Lisa Davies said journalists, newsrooms, and audiences face unprecedented information challenges.

“This partnership with Google will see AAP FactCheck’s capacity expand significantly, reducing the harmful mis and disinformation Australians are encountering every day” she said.

AAP has been dedicated to providing factual, impartial and objective information to newsrooms and audiences for almost 90 years. Google has partnered with AAP FactCheck since the unit was founded in 2019. This new agreement will also see AAP produce social media content aiming to build broader media-literacy skills online.

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“Uma Patel, Google AUNZ’s News Lab Lead, said the initiative builds on an important partnership between the two organisations.

“Our partnership with AAP is a leading force in the fight against misinformation and disinformation,” Patel said.

“AAP has a strong record of calling out false and misleading claims in Australia and New Zealand, we’re excited to see their work grow and reach more people.”

About AAP FactCheckAAP is Australia’s national newswire and only independent wholesaler of fact-based news.AAP FactCheck is a self-contained unit within the AAP newsroom with a dedicated team of fact checkers across Australia and New Zealand.The unit has been a verified signatory with the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) since 2019.

About Google News InitiativeThrough our programs, products and partnerships, Google is one of the world’s largest financial supporters of journalism. Over the past 20 years, we’ve collaborated closely with news partners and provided billions of dollars to support the creation of quality journalism. We launched the Google News Initiative to scale our work with journalists, publishers, and industry leaders to help build a resilient future for news around the globe.

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