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FactCheck.org and Univision Noticias Funded by Google to Address COVID Misinformation

FactCheck.org and Univision Noticias have been awarded funding from the Google News Initiative to produce fact checks about COVID-19 immunization misinformation and short bilingual video explainers.

The joint project is designed to combat viral misinformation and provide accurate information about vaccination to U.S. Hispanic households via videos in Spanish and English.

FactCheck.org, a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, and Univision are the only U.S.-based organizations among the eleven projects chosen for Google News Initiative funding, which was announced on March 16, 2021.

“We worked with Univision’s talented staff during the last two months of the 2020 election and we are excited to continue working with them on COVID-19 misinformation,” said Eugene Kiely, director of FactCheck.org. “Univision is the primary news source for Hispanics in the U.S. This gives us an opportunity to reach a larger and more diverse audience.”

“The pandemic and misinformation have disproportionately affected the Hispanic community,” said Jose Zamora, senior vice president of strategic communications at Univision News. “This exceptional partnership between Univision Noticias and FactCheck.org, with the support of the Google News Initiative, allows us to work with one of the most respected fact-checking platforms in the U.S. to continue and amplify our fight against misinformation and ensure that Latinos have access to accurate information. Univision Noticias is committed to serving its community through journalism and fact-checking; this partnership allows us to fulfill both purposes and our mission.”

The Google News Initiative launched a $3 million Open Fund in January for projects on COVID-19 vaccines that are directed at communities underserved by fact-checking organizations or targeted by misinformation. Google received more than 309 applications from 74 countries.

Early in 2021, FactCheck.org’s SciCheck program launched an expanded initiative to produce written and video fact checks about the coronavirus, COVID-19, and vaccines in Spanish as well as English in an effort to reach underserved communities where long-standing social and health inequities have put people at greater risk of illness and death from COVID-19, and where vaccination rates have been low. To date it has produced more than 15 articles and videos in Spanish, including guides to the FDA-approved Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson vaccines. Other fact checks in Spanish include:

A guide to FactCheck.org’s coronavirus coverage can be found here.

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