Mozilla Information Trust Initiative is ready to fight fake news

Facebook is not the only tech company looking to tackle the problem of fake news online. Mozilla, the company behind Firefox, has created the Mozilla Information Trust Initiative (MITI) in a bid to increase the credibility of the internet.

This is not a solo venture. Mozilla is seeking partners it can work with to conduct further research into fake news, and then develop products to battle what it terms "information pollution" online. The company recognizes that the fake news phenomenon is not properly understood, and that the techniques used to disseminate twisted versions of stories are advanced.

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The aim of Mozilla Information Trust Initiative is multi-pronged, and it calls on everyone from journalists and technologists to policymakers and scientists to help out. One of the primary goals of the project is to increase internet literacy so users are better equipped to be able to identify misleading stories for themselves. This, of course, does not tackle the problem of carefully crafted fake news items which exploit social networks and automated algorithms to spread far and wide, ingraining themselves into audiences' minds.

Mozilla is not underplaying the negative role fake news currently has:

The impact of misinformation on our society is one of the most divisive, fraught, and important topics of our day. Misinformation depletes transparency and sows discord, erodes participation and trust, and saps the web’s public benefit. In short: it makes the Internet less healthy. As a result, the Internet’s ability to power democratic society suffers greatly.

Driven in part by the pelt of misinformation pushed out during the 2016 US election, Mozilla says that it will fund technologists who have proposed solutions to the fake news problem.

Find out more on the Mozilla Information Trust Initiative website.