The Associated Press (AP) news agency has partnered with Everipedia and Chainlink, a decentralized oracle network, to track down fake news.
The collaboration will allow AP to authenticate race-related news using blockchain, according to a statement from Everipedia. The Associated Press works with a large number of freelance journalists to get information on local campaign developments. The news agency will use the power of the blockchain to cryptographically sign the data it receives from these journalists.
This does not completely guarantee the accuracy of the news received, as it is possible that the main AP systems are hacked or the keys used to sign the keys are stolen. But otherwise, such a system is much more reliable than the usual transfer of information via e-mail.
Everipedia’s Chainlink node will provide smart contracts with cryptographically proven access to US election data. It can be used to verify that the data from the host is coming directly from the original Associated Press API, to which Everipedia has exclusive authenticated access.
This integration is made possible by leveraging the Chainlink oracle infrastructure, which allows the Associated Press to sign and publish US election results simultaneously on several different blockchains.
This is not the first attempt to use blockchain to combat fake news. In the summer, The New York Times, as part of a joint project with IBM News Provenance, began testing blockchain to combat fake news.
Previously, other media outlets have also referred to the blockchain. Back in 2018, the American magazine Forbes announced a partnership with a startup Civil to publish its content on a decentralized network. Recently, however, startup Civil, which has been working to create a decentralized platform for media funding and posting, announced it would close in June after four years in operation.
