The largest web sites in Russia and fact-checker organisations have signed a memorandum of cooperation and interaction to create an atmosphere of trust in the dissemination of information on the internet.
The signing ceremony took place at the TASS press centre and was attended by representatives of internet companies Mail.ru Group Yandex, Rambler & Co, Avito, Likee, Mir Tesen, from the media – TASS, Interfax, Business News Media (publisher of the newspaper Vedomosti), RBK, MIC Izvestia and others.
Alexei Nazarov, the CEO of the video platform RUTUBE, was also a signatory. He commented: “The number of fake news on the internet in the first six months of this year has increased by half compared to last year. Today fakes are not only informational risks, they are a big threat to world security in general. Citizens must be provided with the basic right to receive reliable information in the digital environment. However, it is impossible to deal with false information alone. Signing a memorandum of cooperation and interaction to create an atmosphere of trust in the dissemination of information on the internet is an extremely important and urgent task, and we are pleased to support this initiative. We want RUTUBE as a national video hosting service to inspire users’ trust. For us, this is a priority task, since a very diverse audience is present on the site: these are children, youth, the multinational people of the Russian Federation, government departments and large corporations. Each user should be confident in the accuracy of the information and feel safe. I am sure that the cooperation of key companies and the signing of the memorandum will be a big step towards creating a secure internet environment”.