USA TODAY, part of Gannett Co., Inc., has announced that it is joining Facebook’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program. As a program partner, USA TODAY, along with other third-party fact-checkers certified through the non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network, will partner to independently review, rate and verify news content on Facebook and Instagram to help prevent the spread of false information.
“As a media organization with unparalleled local-to-national reach, we take our commitment to providing people with truthful information very seriously, and fact-checking is integral to the journalism being done by USA TODAY and in Gannett newsrooms across the country,” said Maribel Perez Wadsworth, Gannett’s news leader and publisher of USA TODAY. “We also recognize that the distribution of false information on social media is a concerning issue that warrants attention in today’s world, so joining Facebook’s fact-checking program to identify misinformation felt like a natural step for us. We are proud to partner with Facebook on a program with such an important mission.”
USA TODAY routinely fact checks issues in the news and has already established a designated page for its fact-checking reporting, which is accessible at factcheck.usatoday.com. USA TODAY has also previously published instant fact-checks with information livestreamed at usatoday.com in real time. Kristen DelGuzzi, USA TODAY managing editor for politics and world, will lead USA TODAY’s latest fact-checking initiative in partnership with Facebook.
