India to combat election misinformation with fact-checking collective, Shakti, backed by DataLEADS and Google

DataLEADS and Google are backing India Election Fact-Checking Collective, Shakti, a consortium of Indian news media outlets, built to fight misinformation .

Ahead of India’s 2024 general election, Google has come forward to combat misinformation by supporting Shakti, The India Election Fact-Checking Collective.

Shakti - India Election Fact-Checking Collective  is a consortium of news publishers and fact checkers in India, working together to help in early detection of online misinformation, including deepfakes.

Headed by DataLEADS and backed by Google, the initiative will enable the news ecosystem to combat misinformation.

DataLEADS, a digital media and technology company based out of New Delhi, specializes in a range of global services including information ecosystem, data research, media literacy, fact-checking, health literacy, infodemic management, and digital transformation.

The media outlets involved in the Shakti consortium include Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA), The Quint, VishvasNews, Boom, Factly, Newschecker, and PTI (Press Trust of India) with support from Google News Initiative.

India will hold his upcoming general elections in April/May to elect a new government.

The consortium will establish a unified repository for fact-checking resources which will detect and counter online misinformation, including the increasingly prevalent threat of deepfakes.

"Starting today until the conclusion of the General Elections in India, the project will focus on connecting independent fact-checkers and Indian language publishers, giving them a collaborative platform to share fact checks, research resources and alerts on elections-related viral misinformation and deepfakes, saving crucial time," Google said in a blog post.

“In addition, the project will provide news organizations and fact-checkers essential training in advanced fact-checking methodologies, deepfake detection, and the latest Google tools like the Fact Check Explorer, to streamline verification processes. With this launch, the Fact-Checking Collective will continue to onboard new partners and scale the effort to reach most parts of the country,” the blog post read.