Learning from Google

Internet giant Google initiated a campaign to fight the fake and inaccurate news that has caused problems around the world in recent years due to the viral nature of social media. Under the Google News Initiative, the company will spend a total of $300 million to improve the quality and accuracy of news that appears on its various platforms over the next three years. It will share its solutions to filter out misinformation and disinformation with news publishers and enable media outlets to draw more paid online subscribers as well as channeling news and ad revenue benefits to the publishers.

“When journalism succeeds, we all do better,” said Richard Gingras, Google’s vice president of news products. In a separate blog, Google CBO Philip Schindler wrote that “the rapid evolution of technology is challenging all institutions, including the news industry, to keep pace. We need to do more.” The initiative aims to share business models to “strengthen quality journalism and drive sustainable growth of news organizations through technological innovation,” said Schindler.

Google is addressing the spread of misinformation as the problem affects search engines too. It came under criticism for promoting false news in the Google News feed in recent years. The company vows to introduce artificial intelligence-powered solutions to help verify the validity of news reports.

Domestic internet platforms, including the dominant player Naver, should learn from the steps of their multinational counterpart. They refuse to take any responsibility for what comes up in their news feeds, claiming they are not a media outlet, yet refuse to disclose ad revenue earned from their online news services. They need to look to Google as a model for how things should be done.

JoongAng Ilbo, March 22, Page 30