To help users decide whether they should believe what they see, Google has started showing a fact-check label under the thumbnail image results that people search. "When you tap one of these results to view the image in a larger format, you'll see a summary of the fact check that appears on the underlying web page," Harris Cohen, Google's Group Product Manager for Search wrote in a blog post on Monday.
This measure to fight misinformation spread through the use of images builds on Google's fact check features in Search and News. Fact check labels appear on results that come from independent, authoritative sources on the web that meet our criteria. These sources rely on ClaimReview, an open method used by publishers to indicate fact check content to search engines. We already highlight fact checks on Search and in Google News to make this content easy to discover.
YouTube also leverages ClaimReview to surface fact check information panels in Brazil, India and the US. "Just as is the case in Search, adding this label in Google Images results does not affect ranking; our systems are designed to surface the most relevant, reliable information available, including from sources that provide fact checks," Cohen said. To recognise the important work being done by fact-checkers during the ongoing pandemic, the Google News Initiative provided $6.5 million in funding support to organisations around the globe earlier this year.
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