Instagram starts to fact-check photos, videos to highlight misinformation

Last month, Instagram announced that it **will be making alliances with fact-checkers** around the world to expose deception in shared photos or videos. Starting today, the social media platform has started to roll out the feature. I spotted the fact-checker pop-up on Instagram Stories today. For any post that is found by fact-checkers to be ‘factually incorrect’, the images are blurred with a ‘False Information’ warning. Right below the warning is an option to see why the image has been blocked. If you tap on that, you will be shown details on who the fact-checker, what is the conclusion on the authenticity of the content in the post, and more information that will explain why the content may not be true. [caption id=“attachment_7467111” align=“alignnone” width=“1024”]  Instagram. Image: Tech2[/caption] After been warned that the content is false, you can still see the image by shutting the fact-checker pop-up and tapping on ‘See Post’ at the bottom of the image/video. The fact-checker pop-up shown to me was by Agence France Presse APAC. [caption id=“attachment_7844081” align=“alignnone” width=“1280”]  Instagram Fact check. Image: Screenshot from Aashish Arora’s stories.[/caption] Instagram says that it uses “image-matching technology to find further instances of this [false] content and apply the label, helping reduce the spread of misinformation.” “In addition, if something is rated false or partly false on Facebook…we’ll automatically label identical content if it is posted on Instagram (and vice versa).” Facebook already uses third-party fact-checkers in more than a dozen countries, according to its website. Posts reviewed by Facebook fact-checking teams include content flagged by users, as well as material tagged by software that is continually being refined by the company.