The episode has led to renewed calls that tech companies be subject to greater political oversight or control — an outcome that Facebook and Google would desperately like to avoid. U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chair Mark Warner has been particularly vocal about the need for tech companies to do more to combat misinformation on their platforms, and has introduced legislation to regulate online political ads. Google's initiatives are similar — in part, efforts to mollify critics who have argued that tech companies haven't done enough to get the misuse of their platforms under control. As part of its announcement, Google said that its philanthropic arm, Google.org, would distribute $10 million in grant money to organizations worldwide working on media literacy programs. To start, $3 million will be given to a U.S. media literacy initiative aimed at students called MediaWise, which is modelled after an initiative called NewsWise that was piloted in Canada last autumn.

Source: CBC News March 20, 2018 23:03 UTC