Google brings fact check info to image searches

While Google has included fact check labels on its search engine and Google News for some time, the company is now bringing these to image searches too.

“Starting today, we are surfacing fact check information in Google Images globally to help people navigate these issues and make more informed judgments about what they see on the web,” Harris Cohen, Group Product Manager for Google Search, said in a post on 22 June.

When users search on Google Images, they might see a “Fact Check” label under the thumbnail image results.

Clicking on the image will provide a summary of the fact check on the related web page.

However, the labels will only appear on results from sources that meet Google’s criteria for independence and authority.

Furthermore, the label doesn’t affect the ranking of the image in search.

With this label, Google is surfacing fact-checking content rather than flagging images. This makes the feature different from fake news warning labels.

However, Google says that the company hopes to highlight work by fack checkers with the label, similar to Search and Google News.

It’s the latest effort by internet companies to combat fake news and promote fact-checking organisations. Earlier this month, Twitter started testing a new prompt to get users to read an article before retweeting it.

Feature image: Google