Meta Partners with PTI to Expand Fact-Checking Program in India

Meta Platforms, formerly known as Facebook, Inc., is an American multinational technology conglomerate headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The company is the owner and operator of various products and services, including Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp. Meta is considered one of the largest American information technology companies, along with Alphabet (Google), Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft. In 2023, the company was ranked as the 31st on the Forbes Global 2000 list.

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Meta, the company behind Facebook, has teamed up with Press Trust of India (PTI) to bolster its fact-checking efforts in India before the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

This exciting collaboration brings Meta’s total fact-checking partners in India to 12, marking it as the country with the highest number of such partners worldwide.

Through this partnership, PTI will work alongside Meta to spot, examine, and evaluate content to combat misinformation on Meta’s platforms.

In order to combat the spread of misinformation and offer people more trustworthy information, Meta collaborates with independent third-party fact-checkers certified by the non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). These fact-checkers are responsible for identifying, reviewing, and rating viral misinformation on Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.

Meta’s coverage of Indian languages currently encompasses 16 diverse languages, thanks to our trusted fact-checking partners. These languages include Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Urdu, Punjabi, Assamese, Manipuri/Meitei, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Kashmiri, Bhojpuri, Oriya, and Nepali, alongside English.

The main aim of our program is to combat the spread of viral misinformation, especially blatant falsehoods lacking any foundation. Our fact-checking partners give priority to debunking claims that are demonstrably false, timely, trending, and carry significant consequences.

Whenever a fact-checker identifies content as false, altered, or partially false, Meta takes action to limit its reach, ensuring that fewer individuals are exposed to it.

Meta said that they inform individuals attempting to share or who have previously shared content that has been fact-checked. They also add a warning label that directs to the fact-checker’s article for more details about the claim.

Just last month, Meta partnered up with the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA) to launch a special fact-checking support line on WhatsApp. Their aim? To tackle the spread of deepfakes and misleading AI-generated content head-on. This hotline, currently up and running on Meta’s own messaging platform, lets users easily flag any suspicious deepfake content by reaching out to a friendly chatbot.

Meta’s collaboration with Press Trust of India (PTI) strengthens fact-checking efforts in India, with the total fact-checking partners now standing at 12. Independent third-party fact-checkers certified by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) cover 16 diverse Indian languages, prioritizing the debunking of demonstrably false, timely, and trending content. Meta’s proactive measures to limit the reach of misinformation, combined with the recent launch of a special fact-checking support line on WhatsApp with the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA), exemplify its commitment to combatting the spread of deepfakes and misleading AI-generated content.