14 DAY TRIAL // Google's war on fake news takes on a new direction as the company straight out marks search results as "true" or "false."
Google is currently rolling out an update to its platform which adds a "fact check" label in search results next to articles containing claims that have been vetted.
This fact-check tagging system is rolling out globally on Google Search and News and it's an expansion of the company's program introduced in October in the US and the UK via Google's Jigsaw group.
"We’re making the Fact Check label in Google News available everywhere, and expanding it into Search globally in all languages. For the first time, when you conduct a search on Google that returns an authoritative result containing fact checks for one or more public claims, you will see that information clearly on the search results page. The snippet will display information on the claim, who made the claim, and the fact check of that particular claim," the company wrote in an announcement.
Multiple opinions, multiple answers
Unfortunately, this information won't be available for every search result, and there may even be search result pages where different publishers checked the same claim and reached different conclusions. It's important to know, however, that these fact checks are not Google's and they're presented so people can make more informed judgments.
"Even though different conclusions may be presented, we think it's still helpful for people to understand the degree of consensus around a particular claim and have clear information on which sources agree," Google adds.
Google's fact check community has now grown to 115 organizations, without which this effort would not be possible. It's a good idea for Google not to get involved in "personally" fact-checking all these stories even though it may very well find it easy to get the necessary people hired, because it could easily be accused of bias.