Microsoft Edge on mobile now comes with fake news detector

By Pascal Oparada,

Social Media/Tech Reporter

Fighting misinformation can be tricky and the right tools to do so are hardly ever available.

But Microsoft browser on mobile has added a new fake news detector to help curtail mis-and disinformation online. On Android and iOS, the Microsoft Edge app now installs a built-in fake news detector called News Guard.

News Guard said on its website: “It uses journalism to fight false news, misinformation, and disinformation.”

“Our trained analysts, who are experienced journalists, research online news brands to help readers and viewers know which ones are trying to do legitimate journalism—and which are not.”

For instance, NewsGuard provides Green-Red rating signal if a website is trying to get it right or instead has a hidden agenda or knowingly publishes falsehoods or propaganda.

This means that readers have more context for their news online.

And advertisers worried about their brands’ reputations keep their ads off unreliable news sites.

NewsGuard also provides “Nutrition Label” write-ups of the more than 2,000 news and information sites that account for 96% of online engagement in the U.S. in English.

News Guard said a SWAT team of NewsGuard analysts operates 24/7 to identify suddenly trending purveyors of unreliable news among sites that NewsGuard has not yet rated and warn internet users about them in real time.

The project is an expansion of Microsoft’s Defending Democracy programme. It was announced earlier this month.

When downloaded, Edge nudges users to the settings menu and then to an option called News Rating. This enables News Guard with a small blue dot.

For now, it rates news websites in the US only and has promised to roll it out worldwide soon.