On Tuesday, 13 September, First Draft News, a resource platform for journalists, announced it is the expanding First Draft to include a new partner network of over 30 major news and technology organisations. This network will tackle issues of trust and truth in reporting information that emerges online.

The non-profit initiative’s MD, Jenni Sargent, says in an article on the First Draft News website that the 30 confirmed partners in the network have committed to sharing knowledge, developing policies, and devising training in how journalists use the social web to find and report news.

“This network will also create a feedback loop for representatives from each social media platform to connect with journalists and develop ideas for ways to streamline the verification process, improve the experience of eyewitnesses and increase news literacy amongst social media users,” she notes.

The partner network aims to bring these people together to work on ideas and initiatives, including a train-the-trainer programme, the launch of a collaborative verification platform, and the creation of a voluntary code of practice.

“There is a thriving community of specialists working around the world who have developed and honed social newsgathering and verification skills. These include journalists, human rights investigators, and academics. There are also teams working within the social networks who have themselves come from newsrooms and understand the challenges of finding, verifying and reporting stories that emerge online,” Sargent adds.

She explains filtering out false information can be hard. Even if news organisations only share fact-checked and verified stories, “everyone is a publisher and a potential source”.

"We are not going to solve these problems over night, but we’re certainly not going to solve them as individual organisations."

Partners include Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, The New York Times, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, CNN, ABC News (Australia), AJ+, ProPublica, Agence France-Presse, Channel 4 News, The Telegraph, France Info, Breaking News, Les Décodeurs, International Business Times UK, Eurovision News Exchange, SAM, Aljazeera Media Network, Reveal project, InVID project, Euronews, Sourcefabric, WITNESS, Amnesty International, European Journalism Centre, American Press Institute, International Fact Checking Network, Duke Reporters’ Lab.

By Wednesday morning, 14 September, Twitter had responded to the announcement with a tweet: “We're proud to join @firstdraftnews and these dynamic industry leaders to support efforts around eye witness media.”

For more information, read the full article here.