Facebook, Mozilla, others launch $14-mn fund to advance news accuracy

Facebook, Mozilla, the City University of New York (CUNY), and other tech industry leaders and nonprofits are jointly launching a $14-million fund dedicated to advancing news literacy.

Facebook was a controversial partner in the project, in view of the fact that the social network had largely denied being a media company, especially rebuking claims that fake news on its site affected the outcome of last year's US presidential election.

False news and misinformation, often being passed as  trustworthy news was spreading on social media and had gained much attention since the 2016 US presidential election. Companies like Facebook were trying to address the issue.

The money will be invested in the News Integrity Initiative aimed at increasing trust in [social media] journalism worldwide and ''better informing the public conversation.''

Among other backers of the investment are - the Craig Newmark Philanthropic Fund, the Ford Foundation, the Democracy Fund, the John S and James L Knight Foundation, the Tow Foundation, AppNexus, and Betaworks. Funds would be allocated to applied research and projects, along with facilitating meetings with industry experts. The project will be administered by the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism.

''As part of the Facebook Journalism Project, we want to give people the tools necessary to be discerning about the information they see online,'' said Campbell Brown, Facebook's head of news partnership, in a statement.

''Improving news literacy is a global concern, and this diverse group assembled by CUNY brings together experts from around the world to work toward building more informed communities.''

The fund will also receive contributions from Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and the Ford Foundation.

According to recent polls the public's trust in the news industry was at a low.