The largest Russian IT companies, media holdings and publications, including RBC, signed a memorandum on combating inaccurate information on the Internet and creating a secure information environment. Among those who also signed the document were representatives of Yandex, Mail.ru Group, TASS, Rambler & Co, Interfax, Rutube, Ura.ru, Business News Media holding (owns the Vedomosti newspaper), Izvestia MIC “, The publication of The Bell, the center of competence in the field of Internet communications” Dialogue “and a number of other companies.
Representatives of the companies called the purpose of signing the memorandum to fight against fakes – including in blogs, news aggregators, parental chats, etc. – with the involvement of journalists-fact-checkers. The participants in the memorandum should jointly develop and adopt rules for identifying, checking, verifying, refuting and removing inaccurate information.
The signing of the memorandum can be considered the beginning of “a difficult path on which we will encounter issues from the sphere of professional ethics,” said the head of the united editorial board of RBC Petr Kanaev, in whose opinion it is the task of industry representatives to provide adequate answers to them.
Organizations that undertake verification of information should be held accountable for the result of this work, including before the law, he said, citing the requirements of the law “On Mass Media” as an example of such responsibility.
The effectiveness of the memorandum, according to Kanaev, will largely depend on the willingness of the entire industry to invest in the process of verifying the authenticity of user content.
“Trust is expensive, but necessary,” Kanaev emphasized, calling the initiative a large-scale investment project for the industry.
The document is of a framework nature, then the participants will have to agree on how the monitoring and labeling of fake information will be carried out.
