As search trends for online misinformation in India reach an all-time high in 2023, Google has said that its "About this result" feature will be available globally and in nine Indian languages. The feature will help people all over the world to evaluate information and understand where it is coming from.
ALSO READ: OnePlus and Oppo are not leaving the European market
In a blog post, Google said, "Now, whether you're searching in Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu or Punjabi, you'll see the three dots next to most results on Google Search. Tapping those three dots gives you a way to learn more about where the information you're seeing is coming from and how our systems determined that it might be useful for your query."
With this, users will be able to make a more informed decision about the sites they may want to visit and what results will be most helpful for them.
ALSO READ: Spotify to bring a new card-style layout user profiles: Know more
Google has partnered with media literacy experts to develop training and help participants to get a better understanding of how to spot misinformation and combat it.
In India, the tech giant has partnered with FactShala, a collaborative and multi-stakeholder media literacy network led by over 250 journalists and other experts who run locally tailored workshops and programmes in 15 plus Indian languages.
This year, Google said that FactShala is set to launch an incubator programme to help media and community organisations experiment with new and innovative formats to aid media literacy and will run a campaign for youth and first-time voters in collaboration with 500 colleges.
ALSO READ: This is how you can save your Twitter blue tick
Since 2016, through the GNI India Training Network and Google's Teaching Fellows, they have trained over 60,000 journalists and media students on skills required to detect and debunk online misinformation in India.
More than 1,450 newsrooms and 1,200 universities have benefited from over 1,200 workshops offered in 15 plus languages.
Moreover, Google has mentioned that it also launched the GNI Fact Check Academy in 2022 to help newsrooms to build the capacity to verify misleading claims with data and also to tackle climate-related misinformation.
At the end of 2022, YouTube also launched "Hit Pause", a programme to help viewers spot and evaluate misinformation in India.
Inputs from IANS
