Euronews helps UN fight spread of fake news

European news channel Euronews has teamed up with the United Nations’ Verified Initiative to share messages aimed at fighting the spread of fake news.

On World Social Media Day, as part of a global campaign to tackle misinformation, the UN’s Verified Initiative is asking people around the world to adopt a simple behavioural change when they feel their emotions rising online: “Pause. Take care before you share”. 

Euronews is working with the Pause campaign to integrate the initiative across its TV and digital channels on June 30th. 

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The content is being relayed and explained, throughout the day, on-air from Euronews’ social media studio #TheCube, which is integrated in all of its anchored shows and specialises in finding, fact-checking and, if needed, debunking news stories in real-time. 

#TheCube team is also doing an Instagram Live to answer questions on tackling misinformation. 

Euronews is also supporting the campaign with a week-long advertising campaign enabling the Pause campaign to reach its global audiences across TV and digital, on its 12 language editions.  

The initiative comes at the same time as an advertising boycott against Facebook and some other social media companies. The Stop Hate for Profit campaign has seen brands such Coca-Cola, Unilever, Starbucks, Ford, Adidas and HP pull advertising amid claims that Facebook doesn’t do enough to remove racist and hateful content from its platform.  

Euronews is broadcast in 160 countries and distributed in almost 400 million homes - including 67% of homes in the European Union as well as the UK.  

Carolyn Gibson, chief revenue officer at Euronews, said: “We take our responsibilities as a news organisation seriously - and we understand that verification of news and information, especially in the social space is sometimes challenging.” 

Robert Skinner, senior special advisor for global communications at the UN said: “We are in a moment of global reckoning as COVID-19 and its social and economic consequences challenge the world in unprecedented ways. Misinformation, hate speech and fake news are fueling and distorting all of these challenges and eroding the truth. We are very excited to be working with Euronews on the launch of our ‘Pause’ campaign.” 

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