Google’s War on Fake News: It’ll Now Fact Check Your Search Query

By Hadi Waqas. in Internet. April 12, 2017.

Months after being criticized for allowing fake news to dominate the internet, Google is finally ready to tackle the problem head on as the tech giant has finally implemented a fact checking system to its search engine. The best part of it? This system is available worldwide.

From this point forward, if someone were to use Google to search for a claim that was made by an individual or a press outlet, Google’s search engine would place the authenticated news article as the first thing that appears on the search results. The search result will also display information such as the person who made the claim in the first place.

Assisting Google in this endeavour are third party fact checking outfits and organizations such as Snopes and PolitiFact. Google will also be adding more parties into its fact checking system as time goes on, but those interested in do so must pass through a series of stringent checks before their input will be recognized.

Useful though Google’s fact checking system may be, do keep in mind that it is not perfect. As most of Google’s fact checkers operate from the United States, it isn’t too surprising that this system would be limited in its efficiency when it comes to news reported from other parts of the world.

Also, considering the fact that there are over a hundred parties involved in the fact checking process, it is possible that a consensus can’t be formed over the authenticity of some stories. Nevertheless, this system is a good start for Google’s war on fake news.