Google News' Battle Against Misinformation in India During 2024

New Delhi, Dec 18 (NationPress) The year 2024 was a turning point for the news industry globally, with significant elections and various conflicts, according to a statement from Google News on Wednesday.

These major events underscored the crucial role of newsrooms in delivering accurate and timely information, as emphasized by the company, which showcased its efforts in combating misinformation within the Indian news landscape.

In 2024, the tech company supported the Shakti initiative — a partnership aimed at addressing misinformation — while also offering AI training to newsrooms.

Furthermore, it enhanced India's news ecosystem through various initiatives, including the Indian Languages Programme, which increased user engagement and advertising revenue for local publishers, alongside an expansion of the Google News Showcase.

“We take pride in the significant impact our extensive collaboration with Indian news publishers has made, from understanding emerging user behaviors and revenue opportunities to modernisation programs that have led to substantial revenue growth, and collaborative efforts like Shakti, which has set a strong foundation for combating misinformation,” stated Durga Raghunath, Head of India News Partnerships.

Raghunath highlighted that the Shakti initiative united over 50 news publishers and 300 journalists to tackle misinformation and deepfakes in ten local languages, effectively reaching a broad audience.

She further mentioned that the initiative “enabled newsrooms to publish fact-checks 78 percent faster and resulted in the establishment of over 67 new fact-checking desks.”

“In merely three months, more than 6,600 fact-checks were disseminated, resulting in a 180 percent increase in regional language fact-checks and a 92 percent rise in election-related fact-checks,” Raghunath added.

Moreover, acknowledging the transformative capabilities of AI in journalism — such as transcription, research, translation, and data analysis — Google introduced new training initiatives in 2024. These programs aimed to “empower news organizations to adopt these technologies responsibly.”

The company also broadened the scope of Google News Showcase in 2024, which now encompasses eight languages, including Kannada, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, English, and Hindi.

Additionally, the Google News Initiative’s (GNI) Indian Languages Programme has supported over 500 publishers from 28 states across nine languages since June 2023, resulting in a 15 percent growth in active users and a 32 percent increase in page views.

Raghunath mentioned that the company’s goal is to “create value for both news publishers and Google in 2025.”