By: Antonio Nichols | @AntonioBNJr

With the 2016 Presidential Elections on the horizon, one can easily be swayed by the allegations and rumors floating around about each candidate. When these rumors begin to become newsworthy and start to seem like more than rumors, the usual response is to search Google for evidence.  Even though this has become a commonplace action, it can often lead to misinformation and unfair conclusions.  In order to combat these instances, Google has released fact-checking labels that will allow readers to check the sources of their information to get a better idea of its validity.

This new addition to Google News is not a way for Google to place a stamp of approval on the validity of the information that is being presented, but to provide a way for the user to judge if the source is credible. There are over 100 active fact-checking sites that produce thousands of fact checks a year.  In the interest of combating fake news stories and bogus rumors, Google will incorporate these fact-checking sites into Google News by placing tags next to appropriate articles.

While there are many articles that will seek to be validated by this new feature, there is certain criteria that an article must meet in order to use the fact-checking tags.  According to Google’s News Help page, an article must first be published with fact-checking content indicated by schema.org as well as additional criteria that can be found on the webpage.