When the Google News Initiative (GNI) first announced they were tackling the issue of “diversity,” many thought it was just another sop to progress. But, as it turned out, the move was — at least on the surface — genuine. But that didn’t mean that its new and first-ever head of media representation, LaToya Drake, didn’t face her fair share of issues when she first got there. “In the beginning, it was rough for a number of reasons,” she said to AfroTech. “But through a great confluence of events at the Google News Initiative, I was able to shift the perception and the goal of the role. It became ‘hot,’ if you will, to care about these sorts of things. But, as I tell everyone I work with, this is a movement , not a moment. ” As a founding member of the GNI, as it’s known, Drake provides television and radio commentary on news, social media, and pop culture trends, usually on high-profile outlets and news programs. The goal, ultimately, is to not only change the conversation around the...

Google is all about getting the facts straight! In a new open fund, the company plans to put an end to vaccine misinformation amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “The global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is exacerbating a perennial problem of misinformation about immunization,” shared Google in a blog post. “To support additional debunking efforts, the Google News Initiative is launching a COVID-19 Vaccine Counter-Misinformation Open Fund worth up to $3 million.” Sadly, we do live in a world where thanks to social media, false information can spread quickly. Google aims to prevent a continued COVID-19 infodemic which they share has been global in nature and used to target specific populations. Their Open Fund is currently accepting applications from projects that are on a mission to widen the audience of fact checks, specifically for those who are more prone and may be disproportionately affected by the misinformation at hand. Open to new organizations of every size, Google’s new fund is...