Apr 22, 2018 - Technology

A fake news campaign hotline

President Trump often blasts "fake news" at his campaign-style rallies. Photo: Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images

NewsGuard, a new service that uses trained journalists to rate thousands of news and information sites, will announce that it has launched a secure, encrypted digital and telephone hotline for political candidates and members of the public to report suspected fake news sites.

The big picture: Steven Brill, co-CEO of NewsGuard: “We’ve already seen one case of a candidate citing an endorsement from a bogus site that was created by supporters of that candidate. This is a particularly insidious variety of fake news, because it is aimed directly at unsuspecting voters.”

From a forthcoming release: A "SWAT team of NewsGuard analysts will operate 24/7 to identify suddenly trending news sites that NewsGuard has not yet rated and assure — or warn — internet users about them in real time."
Options for contacting the hotline: "Send a secure, end-to-end encrypted message with Signal or Whatsapp: +1-740-480-1850 ... Send an SMS message to: +1-740-480-1850 ... Call and leave a digital voice message: +1-740-480-1850 ... Email: tips@newsguardtech.com ... Leave a comment."
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