Facebook adds Healthy Indian Project as fact-checking partner in India

NEW DELHI: Social media giant Facebook on Wednesday said it is expanding its third-party fact-checking programme in the country to include its first health-specialist partner The Healthy Indian Project (THIP).

The onboarding of THIP as a fact-checking partner is part of Facebook’s effort to combat COVID-19 and all other health-related misinformation on the platform, a statement said.

THIP Media works with verified medical professionals to fact check misleading news and claims about health, medicines, diet and treatment in English, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, and Gujarati, it added.

During the pandemic, Facebook has removed more than 18 million pieces of harmful misinformation across its platform and Instagram and labelled over 167 million fake news posts on COVID-19 with the help of third-party fact-checkers.