Google introduces News Initiative, wants to curb fake news and help journalism

In an effort to curb fake news, Google has announced a new initiative called the Google News Initiative, a project worth $300 million which will “help journalism thrive in the digital age.”

The company’s new initiative is said to signify a major milestone in Google’s 15-year commitment to the news industry, and will bring together everything that is done in collaboration with the industry—across products, partnerships, and programs—to help build a stronger future for news.  

According to Google, the Google News Initiative (GNI) will be focused on three objectives - elevate and strengthen quality journalism, evolve business models to drive sustainable growth and empower news organizations through technological innovation.

The company also launched Subscribe with Google, which will make it easier for users to subscribe to online news sites directly from news pages using their existing payment information from their Google account. This move will also help publishers improve their reach and subsequently expand their subscriber base respectively. Google said it would launch the news subscription with the Financial Times, the New York Times, Le Figaro and The Telegraph among others. The search engine said it plans to add more news publishers soon. 

The changes come as Google, Facebook Inc and Twitter Inc face a backlash over their role during the US presidential election by allowing the spread of false and often malicious information that might have swayed voters towards Republican candidate Donald Trump.