Meta adds more Indian languages to its fact-checking programme

In order to curb misinformation on Facebook and Instagram, their parent company Meta has added a few more Indian languages to its fact-checking programme. The tech giants believe adding four more Indian languages to its programme will help expand the fact-checking capabilities of Meta.

Meta’s fact-checking programme will now have 15 Indian languages.

According to the news agency IANS, Meta has added Kashmiri, Bhojpuri, Odia, and Nepali to its fact-checking programme. Additionally, Meta has partnered with fact-checking company NewsMeter which focuses on the southern states of India, meaning the company can now broaden its reach to the Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, and Tamil-speaking public.

NewsMeter has become Meta’s 11th fact-checking partner in India.

“We are committed to combating the spread of misinformation and have built the largest global fact-checking network,” Manish Chopra, Director and Head of Partnerships, India at Meta, said in the statement.

“The partnership with NewsMeter is an important step in enabling us to curb misinformation in regional Indian languages across Facebook and Instagram,” he added.

How fact-checking programme works

• Identifies false news
• Reviews content
• Labels misinformation and informs users about it
• Ensures that fewer people see misinformation
• Takes action against repeat offenders

“Each time a fact-checker rates a piece of content as false, altered, or partly false, we reduce its distribution so that fewer people see it. We notify people who try to share the content – or who previously shared it – that a fact-checker rated the information. We add a warning label that links to the fact-checker’s article with more information about the claim,” Manish Chopra said.

Meta works with over 80 fact-checking partners worldwide to rate content in more than 60 languages. With the addition of NewsMeter, India now has the most third-party fact-checking partners.

WRITTEN BY

Team Eela

TechEela, the Bedrock of MarTech and Innovation, is a Digital Media Publication Website. We see a lot around us that needs to be told, shared, and experienced, and that is exactly what we offer to you as shots. As we like to say, “Here’s to everything you ever thought you knew. To everything, you never thought you knew”