New York Times Using Blockchain To Combat Fake News

New York Times have revealed new details on its ongoing blockchain publishing experiments.

According to a published report the Newspaper’s research and development team plans to use Hyperledger Fabric’s permissioned blockchain to authenticate news photographs in partnership with IBM’s accelerator program.

The main aim of the project is to track down adulterated media and misinformation which harms small and large publications adding that consumers might be deceived and confused by fake information.

This will be done by storing news items into contextual metadata on a blockchain, including when and where a photo and video was shot, who took it and information regarding how it was edited and published.

The idea is to create a set of signals that can travel with published media anywhere that the material is displayed including social media, group chats and search results, enabling consumers to verify the authenticity of the information they are getting.