India Elections: Google Training Fact-Checkers To Curb Deep Fakes

NEW DELHI, (IANS) – Ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, Google on March 1 announced to support ‘Shakti, India Election Fact-Checking Collective’, which is a consortium of news publishers and fact-checkers in the country, to curb the spread of deep fakes.

The project will focus on connecting independent fact-checkers and Indian language publishers, giving them a collaborative platform to share fact checks, research resources, and alerts on elections-related viral misinformation and deep fakes.

“Fact-checks in multiple Indian languages and formats, including videos, will be shared and amplified via partnering news publishers, ensuring they reach a wider set of language users and diverse audiences across the country,” the company said in a statement.

The project will also provide news organizations and fact-checkers essential training in advanced fact-checking methodologies, deep fake detection, and the latest Google tools like the Fact Check Explorer.

“The Fact-Checking Collective will continue to prioritize publishers producing original news in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, and Marathi,” said the tech giant.

Google said that since 2018, it has supported the training of more than 65,000 journalists, media educators, and journalism students in over 15 languages globally, “and empowered them with digital tools and skills needed to find, verify, and tell engaging stories while tackling the ever-evolving risk of misinformation”.