Hot off the digital presses: Google announced they are launching the Google News Initiative (GNI) in an effort to assist journalism in the age of fake news.
Over the next three years, the tech giant will put more than $300m toward building products that help create sustainable business models for news outlets while hoping to elevate quality journalism.
The truth: a hot market trend
As of late, Google, Facebook, and Twitter have endured intense (and just) scrutiny by allowing the spread of false and sometimes malevolent information that may have even influenced political elections.
Last week, Facebook was caught in a furious kerfuffle following a whistleblower’s account of the social media giant allegedly selling 50m+ users’ data to an analytics firm working for the Trump campaign at the time of the election; on Monday, the scandal caused shares of the entire tech sector to plummet on Wall Street.
In other words, Google’s timing on this announcement couldn’t have been better.