Associated Press, Reuters to help Twitter elevate more credible info

SAN FRANCISCO >> Twitter has signed a deal with the Associated Press and Reuters to help elevate accurate information on its platform. Twitter said today that the program will expand its existing work to help explain why certain subjects are trending on the site, to show information and news from trusted resources and to debunk misinformation.

Twitter said the news agencies will help ensure that credible information is available in real time around key conversations as they come up. That will be especially important where “facts are in dispute” or when the company’s own curation team doesn’t have the necessary expertise or access to enough reputable reporting on the subject, Twitter said.

The news agencies will also be tasked with helping provide context on topics garnering widespread interest, including those that could potentially lead to misleading information, Twitter said.

“Rather than waiting until something goes viral, Twitter will contextualize developing discourse at pace with or in anticipation of the public conversation,” Twitter said.

“This work is core to our mission,” Tom Januszewski, the AP’s vice president of global business development, said in a statement. “AP has a long history of working closely with Twitter, along with other platforms, to expand the reach of factual journalism.”

Hazel Baker, head of user-generated content newsgathering at Reuters, said “trust, accuracy and impartiality are at the heart of what Reuters does every day.”

Financial terms of the partnerships were not disclosed. The AP and Reuters are also fact-checking partners with Facebook.