BBC's anti-disinformation initiative launches on Nov 12

In its bid to fight the menace of fake news, the BBC on Friday said it would launch on November 12 a project with a major focus on global media literacy, panel debates in India and Kenya, hackathons exploring tech solutions and a special season of programming.

The "Beyond Fake News" project will kick-start with the release of findings from original research into how and why disinformation is shared, the BBC said.

The research to be released publicly on November 12 comes after users gave the BBC unprecedented access to their encrypted messaging apps in India, Kenya, and Nigeria.

"In 2018 I pledged that the BBC World Service Group would move beyond just talking about the global 'fake news' threat, and take concrete steps to address it.

"Poor standards of global media literacy, and the ease with which malicious content can spread unchecked on digital platforms mean there's never been a greater need for trustworthy news providers to take proactive steps," Jamie Angus, Director of the BBC World Service Group, said in a statement.

"We have put our money where our mouth is and invested in real action on the ground in India and in Africa," Angus added.

The Beyond Fake News season will include "Fake Me", a documentary revealing how far young people will go in pursuit of social media perfection, as well as the in-depth story of what happened when WhatsApp turned one Indian village into a lynch mob.

There will also be reports on Russia's disinformation campaign, how Facebook is being exploited in the Philippines to spread false information, and a debate with the world's big four tech firms on what role they play in stemming the spread of fake news.

--IANS

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