The Trusted News Initiative is a coalition of left-of-center media organizations and social media companies created by the British Broadcasting Corporation in 2019 with the “specific aim of flagging disinformation during elections.” ¹

Background

The Trusted News Initiative (TNI) is a coalition of left-of-center media, social media, and technology companies created by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in 2019 with the “specific aims of flagging disinformation during elections,” and to also censor what the initiative deems is misinformation. ²

Organizations that are partners of the initiative include the Associated Press, BBC, European Broadcasting Union (EBU), Meta, Microsoft, Thomson Reuters, Google, Twitter, and The Washington Post. ³

TNI also has an Asia-Pacific sister initiative that is partnered with media organizations including ABC Australia and NHK Japan. ⁴

TNI initiatives include creating an “early warning system” that lets organizations “alert each other rapidly when they discover disinformation which threatens human life or disrupts democracy during elections,” creating a “media education campaign,” providing information to voters, and sharing learning, especially around “high-profile elections.” ⁵

TNI supports outside initiatives such as Project Origin, another initiative created to stop the spread of disinformation by “detecting the manipulation of content” and authenticating its source. It is an alliance that includes the BBC, Microsoft, and the New York Times. TNI also supports the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA), an initiative created by the BBC and supported by Microsoft, Intel, Adobe, Sony, and Truepic to create systems that provide context for digital media. ^{6 7}

COVID-19

The Trusted News Initiative changed its focus to “combatting the spread of harmful vaccine disinformation” regarding the COVID-19 pandemic in December 2020. The change of focus meant partners of TNI alert each other to “disinformation which poses an immediate threat to life.” During the announcement of its change in focus, TNI stated that examples of harmful anti-vaccine disinformation included widely shared memes, suggestions of an ulterior motive for the creation of the vaccine and downplaying the effects of coronavirus. ⁸

During its announcement of its change of focus, TNI noted its successes running a rapid alert system during the 2019 UK general election and 2020 elections in Myanmar, Taiwan, and the U.S. ⁹

Six months after it changed its mission to focus on COVID-19 misinformation, journalists accused TNI of censorship and fearmongering. ¹⁰

The group of around 30 journalists, called Holding the Line: Journalists Against Covid Censorship, argued in June 2021 that attempts to publish concerns about the “one official narrative” or “one ‘scientific truth’” of the COVID-19 vaccine debate led to journalists being criticized by their superiors and freelance journalists being blacklisted. The group also claimed that the public was experiencing a “distorted view of the truth.” ¹¹

1. “Misinformation in the COVID-19 Infodemic.” House of Commons. Accessed June 29, 2023. https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/1954/documents/19089/default/.
2. “Misinformation in the COVID-19 Infodemic.” House of Commons. Accessed June 29, 2023. https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/1954/documents/19089/default/.
3. “Trusted News Initiative.” Beyond Fake News. Accessed June 29, 2023. https://www.bbc.co.uk/beyondfakenews/trusted-news-initiative/.
4. “Meet the Partners.” Beyond Fake News. Accessed June 29, 2023. https://www.bbc.co.uk/beyondfakenews/trusted-news-initiative/meet-the-partners/.
5. Union, European Broadcasting. “Trusted News Initiative steps up global fight against disinformation and targets US presidential election.” July 13, 2020. Accessed June 29, 2023. https://www.ebu.ch/news/2020/07/trusted-news-initiative-steps-up-global-fight-against-disinformation-and-targets-us-presidential-election.
6. “Overview.” C2PA . Accessed June 29, 2023. https://c2pa.org/.
7. Union, European Broadcasting. “Trusted News Initiative steps up global fight against disinformation and targets US presidential election.” July 13, 2020. Accessed June 29, 2023. https://www.ebu.ch/news/2020/07/trusted-news-initiative-steps-up-global-fight-against-disinformation-and-targets-us-presidential-election.
8. Union, European Broadcasting. “Trusted News Initiative to combat spread of harmful vaccine disinformation.” December 10, 2020. Accessed June 29, 2023. https://www.ebu.ch/news/2020/12/trusted-news-initiative-to-combat-spread-of-harmful-vaccine-disinformation
9. Union, European Broadcasting. “Trusted News Initiative to combat spread of harmful vaccine disinformation.” December 10, 2020. Accessed June 29, 2023. https://www.ebu.ch/news/2020/12/trusted-news-initiative-to-combat-spread-of-harmful-vaccine-disinformation.
10. Tobitt, Charlotte. “Journalists claim alternative Covid-19 news has been ‘censored’ to create ‘one official narrative’.” July 26, 2021. Accessed June 29, 2023. https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/journalists-claim-alternative-covid-19-news-censorship-create-one-official-narrative/.
11. Tobitt, Charlotte. “Journalists claim alternative Covid-19 news has been ‘censored’ to create ‘one official narrative’.” July 26, 2021. Accessed June 29, 2023. https://pressgazette.co.uk/news/journalists-claim-alternative-covid-19-news-censorship-create-one-official-narrative/.