Google announces grant to promote news literacy in India

In collaboration with the Google News Initiative, Google has announced funding support of $10 million commitment to media literacy in India where ‘fake news’ have gravely affected, which in turn contributed to a rise in hatred and violence, and horrific incidences of lynching. Concern about misinformation was especially pronounced around last year’s general election. The spread of misinformation is something the Google News Initiative (GNI) India Training Network—a group of 240 senior Indian reporters and journalism educators—has been working to counteract, in their newsrooms and beyond.

In partnership with DataLeads and Internews, the Network has provided in-depth verification training for more than 15,000 journalists and students from more than 875 news organisations, in 10 Indian languages. Using a ‘train-the-trainer’ approach, it’s also helped support nearly all of the fact-checking initiatives launched by Indian media over the past year.