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in search results. Paid advertising has also been affected. Fake
news creators have paid for ads that link to their sites to appear
in Google ads. On YouTube, fake news sites have posted false
and misleading videos that were viewed and shared by millions of
users. To combat fake news on its platforms, Google has refined
its search engine algorithm to return authoritative sources higher
in search results and questionable sites lower. The company has
also partnered with fact-checking organizations to identify fake
news that appears on both Google and YouTube. Advertising is
also under scrutiny. Google is now requiring advertisers to identify
themselves. It is also requiring buyers of political ads to disclose
information about who paid for the ads.
In 2018 Google announced the launch of the Google News
Initiative (GNI), a multifaceted initiative to improve journalism in the
digital age. Since its launch, the GNI has provided funding to help
news outlets create compelling online news and build sustainable
video operations and has invested in product features on You-
Tube that allow it to prominently feature authoritative news sourc-
es. “On our own platforms, we’re focused on combating misinfor-
mation during breaking news situations. Bad actors often target
breaking news on Google platforms, increasing the likelihood that
people are exposed to inaccurate content. So we’ve trained our
systems to recognize these events and adjust our signals toward
more authoritative content,” writes Philipp Schindler, Google’s
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chief business officer. The company has made similar changes
on YouTube. As part of the GNI, Google is launching the Disinfo
Lab to fight disinformation during election cycles and breaking
news events. The company has also teamed up with the Poynter
Institute and the Local Media Association to launch MediaWise, a
project designed to educate young Americans in digital informa-
tion literacy.
Yet many are skeptical that social media companies can ef-
fectively address fake news. Some believe that the platforms
have done too little, too late. “I don’t feel like it’s working at all,”
says a journalist who does fact-checking for Facebook. “The

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