"In high school US history, I learned that a trustworthy press is the immune system of democracy," says Craigslist founder Craig Newmark. "As a news consumer, like most folks, I want news we can trust. That means standing up for trustworthy news media and learning how to spot clickbait and deceptive news." Newmark, along with Facebook, Mozilla, and a consortium of tech leaders, are today announcing a $14 million fund to back a non-profit initiative whose mission it will be to combat the proliferation of fake news and increase trust in journalism worldwide. As the Associated Press reports, it will be called the News Integrity Initiative, and it comes at a time when public perception of the news media is at an all time low.

The non-profit will be based at the City University of New York and run as an independent project of the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. Facebook's head of news partnerships, Campbell Brown, said in a statement, "The initiative will address the problems of misinformation, disinformation and the opportunities the internet provides to inform the public conversation in new ways."

"As digital media allows folks to engage with and distribute news across their social networks, the ability to vet the authenticity and integrity of online content is increasingly important," writes Newmark. "Through research and education, the News Integrity Initiative's goal is to give people the fundamental tools to make decisions about which sources to trust and to question."

Facebook recently took one step forward in the process on its own platform, rolling out a "Disputed" tag for stories that are shared that have been debunked by one of their fact-checking partners, which include Snopes.com and Politifact. Still, this effort falls short of calling out or removing stories that are patently false — a deferential move apparently to avoid angering conservatives who already suspected the site's news feed of having a liberal bias during the election season last year.

As CNet reports, the 19 initial partners in the non-profit will be as follows:

  • Arizona State University, in the US
  • Center for Community and Ethnic Media at CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, in the US
  • Constructive Institute at Aarhus University, in Denmark
  • Edelman, based in the US
  • European Journalism Centre, in the Netherlands
  • Fundación Gabriel García Márquez para el Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano (FNPI), based in Colombia
  • Hamburg Media School, in Germany
  • Hans-Bredow-Institut, in Germany
  • The Ida B. Wells Society, in the US
  • International Center for Journalists, based in the US
  • News Literacy Project, based in the US
  • Polis, London School of Economics, in the UK
  • Ecole de Journalisme de Sciences Po (Sciences Po Journalism School), in France
  • Society of Publishers in Asia, based in Hong Kong
  • Trust Project, based in the US
  • Walkley Foundation, in Australia
  • Weber Shandwick, based in the US
  • Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales
  • United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Division for Freedom of Expression and Media Development, headquartered in France


Previously: Facebook Rolls Out 'Disputed' Tag For Fake News Stories, Rather Than Calling Them Fake