Google Allocates $3 Million To Counter Vaccine Misinformation

The Google News Initiative (GNI) is rolling out a new open fund for up to $3 million to combat misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, a blog post says.

The “COVID-19 Vaccine Counter-Misinformation Open Fund” will aim to fight the misinformation that has been used to target specific demographics.

The fund will be accepting applications from groups or companies attempting to broaden the audience of fact-checking, as some research suggests that the audiences who see the misinformation aren’t the same people that are seeking to get facts checked.

The fund is global and will be open to news organizations of any size that have a proven track record of fact-checking and debunking activities.

There will be priority given to companies with interdisciplinary teams and proven ways to measure success, the blog says, such as an application which consists of an established fact checking project and a media outlet rooted in a specific community.

Another example could be a partnership between journalists and doctors via technology in order to jointly look into misinformation and facts.

The Open Fund will build on the GNI’s work from April and December of last year, in which support was given to news organizations fighting various pandemic-related misinformation. And the GNI is working on calculations on the precise ways in which to word headlines, formats and sources to best combat vaccine misinformation, the blog says.

The COVID-19 vaccine, since its quick approval at the end of last year, has caused division online and in person, with some people being skeptical of it. PYMNTS writes that the vaccine has created “a new kind of influencer” in popular politicians or entertainers volunteering to get it live on camera.

Former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, alongside U.K. prime minister Boris Johnson, have been among those volunteering to do so, in the hopes of showing people that it’s OK to get the vaccine, and hopefully eventually build a herd immunity to the pandemic.