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23rd January 2019
11:11am GMT
NewsGuard's assessment of Mail Online (Credit: NewsGuard)[/caption]
The startup is run by former journalists and wants other tech companies to use it to combat disinformation. Cofounder Steve Brill told the Guardian criticism should be directed as his company, rather than Microsoft, if people are unhappy with its ratings: "They can blame us. And we’re happy to be blamed. Unlike the platforms we’re happy to be accountable.
"We want people to game our system. We are totally transparent. We are not an algorithm."
"We spell out fairly clearly in the label exactly how many times we have attempted to contact the Mail. The analyst that wrote this writeup got someone on the phone who, as soon he heard who she was and where she was calling from, hung up. As of now, we would love to hear if they have a complaint or if they change anything."
Microsoft's collaboration with NewsGuard forms part of its "Defending Democracy programme." It has no input on the service's judgements.
A Microsoft spokesperson said: "Microsoft is partnering with NewsGuard to offer the NewsGuard browser extension on Microsoft Edge, and a feature in Microsoft Edge mobile apps for iOS and Android to help our customers evaluate news sources.
"Across both the browser and the apps, NewsGuard is optional and customers need to take action if they want to use the feature."Explore more on these topics:
