Instagram launched a US-based fact-checking program in early 2019, which has now gone global (DENIS CHARLET)
<p>San Francisco (AFP) – Instagram on Monday went global in its fight against misinformation, making alliances with fact-checkers around the world to expose deception in shared photos or videos.</p><p>The Facebook-owned social platform launched a fact-checking program in the US early this year.</p><p>"Today’s expansion is an important step in our ongoing efforts to fight misinformation on Instagram," the service said in an online post.</p><p>"Photo and video based misinformation is increasingly a challenge across our industry, and something our teams have been focused on addressing."</p><p>Instagram began working with third-party allies in the US to help identify, review and label bogus posts.</p><p>Content deemed to be false is ignored by Instagram’s search or recommendation tools and is shown with a warning label if users come across it.</p><p>"When content has been rated as false or partly false by a third-party fact-checker, we reduce its distribution," Instagram said.</p><p>"In addition, it will be labeled so people can better decide for themselves what to read, trust and share."</p><p>Once a post is found to be deceptive, software searches for it across Instagram’s platform to brand it accordingly.</p><p>"We use image matching technology to find further instances of this content and apply the label, helping reduce the spread of misinformation," Instagram said.</p><p>"In addition, if something is rated false or partly false on Facebook, starting today we’ll automatically label identical content if it is posted on Instagram (and vice versa)."</p><p>Instagram will also expand an anti-bullying feature developed earlier this year.</p><p>Artificial intelligence software will scan captions and comments as people write them and will notify users if their comments could be considered offensive.</p><p>"We’ve found that these types of nudges can encourage people to reconsider their words," Instagram said.</p><p>Facebook already uses third-party fact-checkers in more than a dozen countries, according to its website.</p><p>Posts reviewed by Facebook fact-checking teams include content flagged by users, as well as material tagged by software that is continually being refined by the California-based media giant.</p><p></p>

Disclaimer: Validity of the above story is for 7 Days from original date of publishing. Source: AFP.