The CBC is joining Microsoft, Intel and several other major media and tech corporations in a new initiative meant to combat disinformation online.
The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) was announced on Monday in partnership with its founding members which include Adobe, Arm, BBC, Intel, Microsoft and Truepic.
According to a press release on the matter, the initiative was formed to “address the prevalence of disinformation, misinformation and online content fraud through developing technical standards for certifying the source and history or provenance of media content.”
“CBC/Radio-Canada is joining the Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity (C2PA) through our participation in Project Origin, which we announced on December 5, 2019,” CBC’s Corporate Spokesperson Leon Mar told True North.
“Disinformation is a global challenge. We need global solutions. CBC/Radio-Canada is working with like-minded media and technology partners to strengthen measures to fight disinformation, as part of our ongoing work to ensure Canadians have access to trusted sources of news and information.”
According to Mar, the coalition builds on previous work done by the BBC-led Trusted News Initiative alongside social media giants like Google, Twitter and Facebook.
“[The public broadcaster] has been providing technical expertise as part of its contribution to Project Origin, in cooperation with the BBC, The New York Times and Microsoft,” said Mar.
“CBC/Radio-Canada believes that trusted sources of news and information for Canadians are vital to democracy.”
The move comes as the Canadian government is also seeking to impose sweeping regulations on tech companies through Bill C-10, which would expand regulations on traditional broadcasters to online publishers.
In addition,the government is looking to introduce legislation which would force companies like Facebook to pay for Canadian news content hosted on their platforms.
Similar regulations recently introduced by the Australian government have prompted Facebook to ban Australian news content on its platform entirely, citing unfair demands put on the social media giant by legislators.
Liberal Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault also announced that new legislation would seek to regulate online hate speech and other forms of offensive content.
