Washington Post adds fact-check plug-in for Trump tweets

To fact-check the posts from US President-elect Donald Trump's Twitter account, the Washington Post has released a Chrome plug-in -- first for any American news outlet.

According to a report in ArsTechnica on Saturday, the new "RealDonaldContext" plug-in for the Google Chrome browser, released by the Washington Post reporter Philip Bump, adds fact-check summaries to selected posts by Trump.

"Users will need to click a post in the Trump's Twitter feed to see any fact-check information from the Washington Post, which appears as a gray text box beneath the tweet," the report said.

Any statement on Trump's account that the editors of the Washington Post consider misleading, fact check notes appear below that post that include a simple headline, a few explanatory remarks and a link to an article on the Washington Post that offers the complete context.

For the posts that are accurate, the explanatory notes do not appear beneath them.

Earlier this year, during his election campaign, Trump's presidential campaign had revoked the Washington Post's press credentials and accused them of "incredibly inaccurate coverage and reporting".

The move comes two days after Trump's meeting with the owner of the Washington Post, along with other tech-industry CEOs. However, Trump's Twitter account is yet to acknowledge the Washington Post's Chrome plug-in.

--IANS

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