Partnering with news publishers and fact checkers to tackle misinformation ahead of the Indian General Elections 2024

As India prepares for its general elections, we recognise the essential role of news publishers, journalists, and fact-checkers in helping people access trustworthy information they need for informed participation.

At Google, we have long supported this work by investing in features, resources and partnerships that can help people better evaluate online information. Continuing our commitment to enable the news ecosystem to combat misinformation, we are supporting Shakti, India Election Fact-Checking Collective – a consortium of news publishers and fact checkers in India, working together to aid the early detection of online misinformation, including deepfakes, and to create a common repository that news publishers can use to tackle the challenges of misinformation at scale.

Shakti, a pan-India network, will be driven by DataLEADS, in collaboration with the Misinformation Combat Alliance, The Quint, VishvasNews, Boom, Factly, and Newschecker, with support from the Google News Initiative.

Starting today until the conclusion of the General Elections in India, the project will focus on connecting independent fact checkers and Indian language publishers, giving them a collaborative platform to share fact checks, research resources and alerts on elections-related viral misinformation and deepfakes, saving crucial time. Fact-checks in multiple Indian languages and formats, including videos, will be shared and amplified via partnering news publishers, ensuring they reach a wider set of language users and diverse audiences across the country.

In addition, the project will provide news organizations and fact-checkers essential training in advanced fact-checking methodologies, deepfake detection, and the latest Google tools like the Fact Check Explorer, to streamline verification processes.

With this launch, the Fact-Checking Collective will continue to onboard new partners and scale the effort to reach most parts of the country.

If you are a news publisher interested in participating in the Fact-Checking Collective and empowering your newsroom and audience, you can sign up here. The Fact-Checking Collective will continue to prioritize publishers producing original news in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali and Marathi.