The Brazil version of Metro News teamed up with Brazilian agency Artplan to fight back against the spread of fake news.

The paper and agency opted to use a Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, better known by most as a CAPTCHA. But this CAPTCHA came with a twist: instead of selecting random images, the user must select which image has a piece of fake news. After the answer, a brief explanation with the true fact appears and the user can move on to comment. Every day, a different piece of fake news is shown, keeping readers up-to-date.

“Journalism is the true guardian of the truth. And everything that can be done to fight fake news is important,” said Cláudio Bianchini, Brazil’s Metro president, in an emailed statement.

[iframe_youtube video = “fBsyyW01m1I”]

The “fake news” phenomenon has been a major driver of conversation in the online world in the last several years, particularly since the U.S. presidential election of 2016. According to a recent Ipsos study, 68% of Canadians blame Facebook as a source of Fake news, while 65% blame social media in general and 62% lame “the internet.” YouTube and the so-called “mainstream media” have also been singled out, while more traditional mediums like print and TV are less likely to be seen as sources.

Credits

Advertiser: Metro (Brazil)
Agency: Artplan