Social networking giant Facebook is reportedly growing its third-party fact-checking program in India by adding The Healthy Indian Project (THIP) as its first health-specialist partner.

According to a statement, the addition of THIP as a fact-checking partner is part of the social media giant’s effort to address all health-related and COVID-19 disinformation on the platform.

THIP Media works with authorized medical experts to examine misleading news and claims about health, medicines, treatment, and diet in Gujrati, Punjabi, Bengali, Hindi, and English, it added.

With the help of third-party fact-checkers, Facebook has removed over 18 million pieces of misleading disinformation from its platform and Instagram throughout the pandemic and has recognized over 167 million fake news postings on COVID-19, sources cited.

The partnership with THIP will improve Facebook’s ability to understand and combat health-related disinformation on the site.

It is worth noting that Facebook in combination with 80 fact-checking partners across the world, monitors material in more than 60 languages. Moreover, the International Fact-Checking Network, an independent, non-partisan organization, has certified Facebook's fact-checking partners, cited knowledgeable sources.

Third-party fact-checkers, according to Facebook, review stories, check if they are genuine, and rate their accuracy. When a fact-checker flags a story as incorrect, Facebook moves it to the bottom of the News Feed, drastically decreasing its reach.

Pages and domains that distribute fake news regularly will have their distribution decreased, and their ability to monetize and advertise will be temporarily disabled.

In other news, Facebook announced that podcast streaming will be available on the platform starting from June 22. Users will able to listen to podcasts within the Facebook app, which the company revealed in April.

Reportedly, it is now sending out emails to podcast pages informing them of a new function that allows them to connect the RSS feed of their podcast to their Facebook Page, which will generate connected, playable News Feed posts automatically for each episode broadcasted.

Source Credits –

https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/facebook-adds-healthy-indian-project-as-fact-checking-partner-in-india/83597376