10/12/2021

NewsGuard Partners with Bright, the New Ethical Social Media App, to Keep Misinformation Off the Platform

New social media platform will empower users to avoid misinformation and build media literacy skills

(Oct. 12, 2021 — New York & London) Bright, a new social media network focused on trust, privacy, and meaningful connections, has partnered with NewsGuard to help its members avoid misinformation and engage with credible news on the platform ahead of its launch in the U.S., U.K., and Canada this December.

When the Bright app launches to the public later this year, NewsGuard’s Reliability Ratings and “Nutrition Label” reviews for thousands of news sources will appear alongside news articles shared on the app.  

While legacy social media companies continually fail to provide adequate user empowerment and safety tools for the millions of people registered on their platforms, Bright is taking a different approach. By integrating NewsGuard’s ratings, Bright staff and members alike will be equipped to distinguish between trustworthy and unreliable sources shared on the platform and read NewsGuard’s “Nutrition Labels” explaining the rationale for each rating and the overall background and practices of each news site. 

“We built Bright to be a platform that prioritises trust, transparency, accuracy, and real human connections,” said Taryn Ward, CEO and Founder of Bright. “NewsGuard uses real humans — journalists — to produce rigorous, transparent ratings and reviews of news source credibility. Based on these shared values, it was clear that NewsGuard was the perfect partner to promote news literacy and highlight reliable information on our platform.”

“Bright is showing that it’s possible for social media companies to fight misinformation and promote reliable journalism without compromising the user experience,” said Steven Brill, co-CEO at NewsGuard. “We’re pleased to be working with a team that treats its members first, not advertisers first, unlike other social media platforms that treat their users as products to be delivered to advertisers. We share Bright’s mission to make the internet a safer and more pleasant place for everyone.” 

NewsGuard provides Reliability Ratings and “Nutrition Label” reviews for the more than 6,800 news and information websites that account for at least 95% of online engagement with news in the U.K., U.S., France, Germany, and Italy. Its team of trained journalists rate each website using nine basic, apolitical criteria of journalistic practice, resulting in a trust score out of 100 and a Red or Green rating indicating the reliability of each site. Each rating is described in a detailed “Nutrition Label” review.

When the first full cohort of Bright members logs on to the platform at the end of the year, they will see NewsGuard’s Red and Green rating icons next to articles shared on the platform. Users who wish to learn more about the source behind the article and understand why it received the rating it did may click on the rating icon to read the full “Nutrition Label” behind the rating.

Bright’s transparency-centric approach secures the user experience by verifying the identity of each member, adhering to the strictest standards of privacy and restricting widespread sharing of information that has not been validated as trustworthy by nominated members or subject matter experts — now including experts from NewsGuard. For example, NewsGuard’s rating of a source linked in a post will act as a trigger for content to be reviewed before it is circulated beyond a member’s immediate network. This partnership will empower Bright users by distinguishing credible and unreliable news sources and transparently displaying who is feeding them the “news.”

Bright’s innovative approach to member safety and wellbeing comes as regulators in the U.K., the U.S., Europe and elsewhere place legacy social media operators under increased scrutiny. In the U.K., for example, the government’s December 2020 update to the Online Harms White Paper requires that news consumers be informed about the trustworthiness of the sources being presented to them, describing NewsGuard as a possible solution. Established and upcoming social media companies alike can use Bright’s approach as a blueprint to protect and empower users and facilitate a safe online experience — thereby adhering to existing and upcoming regulations.

To learn more about NewsGuard’s data solutions for social media platforms and content moderators, click here. To learn more about Bright click here, and to join the Bright community, click here.   

 

About NewsGuard

Launched in March 2018 by media entrepreneur and award-winning journalist Steven Brill and former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz, NewsGuard provides credibility ratings and detailed “Nutrition Labels” for thousands of news and information sources. NewsGuard rates all the news and information sources that account for 95% of online engagement across the US, UK, Germany, France, and Italy. 

NewsGuard’s ratings are conducted by trained journalists using nine apolitical criteria of journalistic practice, including whether a news source repeatedly publishes false content, whether it regularly corrects or clarifies errors, and whether it avoids deceptive headlines. Based on the criteria, each source receives an overall trust rating, a trust score of 0-100, a score on each of the nine criteria, and a detailed “Nutrition Label” explaining the rating and providing examples of the site’s editorial practices. Advertisers, advertising agencies and advertising tech companies license NewsGuard’s ratings to direct their programmatic advertising toward legitimate journalism and avoid misinformation. For more information, including to download the browser extension and review the ratings process, visit newsguardtech.com.

About Bright

Bright is a social network that’s built on trust. It’s an opportunity to meaningfully connect with real people on a platform that maintains and secures member privacy, allows authentic interactions and content to flourish, and roots out misinformation, bots and harassment. It’s a community based on mutual respect, trust, and accountability where people can share ideas and inspire each other. Bright is the social network we’ve deserved all along, and members won’t have to sacrifice their privacy or wellbeing to participate. Bright never sells, trades, or shares its members’ data. 

Fake news and misinformation are everywhere online, and keeping them off Bright is a top priority. The platform is designed to keep out clickbait and fake news items by restricting the widespread sharing of information until it has been validated as trustworthy by members and, in some cases, experts. Bright also actively seeks out fake news and removes it from the network and, in a complete change from how things are done elsewhere, any member who shares it can be held accountable.

 

NewsGuard Contacts 

  • Steven Brill, Co-CEO, steven.brill@newsguardtech.com, +1 212 332 6301
  • Gordon Crovitz, Co-CEO, gordon.crovitz@newsguardtech.com, +1 212 332 6407

Bright Contact