• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, October 26, 2017

Google announced a partnership on Thursday with the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), run by The Poynter Institute, which promotes best practices when it comes to accurate information online.

But Google is not the only source of information struggling with the stigma. Facebook and Twitter have also caught flack for erroneous information running their news feeds.

Adopted by The Washington Post, Associated Press, PolitiFact, and Factcheck.org, among other organizations worldwide, IFCN's best practices are intended to improve the context and content of the information online.

Fake news has tarnished Google's reputation primarily since the 2016 presidential election, and the company has addressed the issues around misinformation in various ways.  

For Google, it's about building online trust. Thousands of fact-checked articles appear in Google search results, on Google News, and across the web. But this new initiative aims to increase the number of verified fact-checkers globally by holding workshops to offering coaching and stipends for new fact-checking organizations.

Erica Anderson, partnerships manager at Google News Lab, wrote in a post that the partnership will ensure the content on Google Search and Google News has been accurately fact-checked.

The plan also means providing access to various fact-checking tools for free, and offering engineering resources to develop new fact-checking software tools to improve efficiency.

Anderson writes that Google hopes the partnerships with organizations like the IFCN will give people a better understanding of the information they are about to click on online.