With Karnataka heading for the polls in May, Facebook has announced a third-party fact-checking programme in the state to fight spread of fake news on its platform.

The social media giant on Tuesday partnered with BOOM, an independent digital journalism initiative, for a pilot programme that will first roll out in the southern state.

Karnataka goes to election on May 12, and the counting of votes will take place on May 15.

“Starting today, BOOM, certified through the International Fact-Checking Network, non-partisan international fact checking network at Poynter, will be able to review English language news stories flagged on Facebook, check facts, and rate their accuracy,” Facebook said in a blog post.

Facebook has 217 million monthly active users in India.

“We are beginning small and know it is important to learn from this test and listen to our community as we continue to update ways for people to understand what might be false news in their News Feed,” it added.

Once a story is rated as false, Facebook has learned to reduce its distribution by 80 per cent.

“When a fact-checker rates a story as false, we will show it lower in News Feed, significantly reducing its distribution. This, in turn, stops the hoax from spreading and reduces the number of people who see it,” Facebook said.

Pages and domains that repeatedly share false news will also see their distribution reduced and their ability to monetise and advertise removed.

If the third-party fact-checkers write articles debunking a false news story, Facebook will show it in “Related Articles” immediately below the story in News Feed.

“We’ll also send people and Page Admins notifications if they try to share a story or have shared one in the past that’s been determined to be false,” Facebook noted.

According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, it is important to make sure no one interferes in any more elections, including in India.

“Our goals are to understand Facebook’s impact on upcoming elections — like Brazil, India, Mexico and the US midterms — and to inform our future product and policy decisions,” he said while testifying before the US Congress last week.

“The most important thing I care about right now is making sure no one interferes in the various 2018 elections around the world,” he told a panel of 44 Senators.

Zuckerberg said Facebook will ensure that its platform is not misused to influence elections in India and elsewhere.

Amid nationwide outrage over the recent cases of crime against women, a statement by a lawyer proves exactly why situation in the country is not going to change soon.

As hearings in the Kathua rape case are underway, several revelations seem to be taking place on daily basis. Recently, the defence counsel, representing five of the eight accused in the case, has not only raised questions on the probe conducted by the Jammu and Kashmir police but also questioned the capability of the senior investigating lady officer stating that it was beyond her “intelligence.” As per reports, the defence counsel, Ankur Sharma said that the case was investigated by a woman who is also a new officer. He added, “She was misguided by someone.”
Ankur Sharma said that the police officers involved in the investigation and also the bureaucrats are nothing but the ‘puppets’. The following claims by the lawyer come in after the officer, Shwetambri Sharma, talked about the hurdles and problems she faced while investigating the brutal murder and rape of an 8-year-old Bakerwal girl. Reports suggest that the Kathua rape case took place in January and the chargesheet was filed by the police some three months later. Reacting to the reports of lady officer being threatened, the lawyer asked, “If she had faced so many hurdles why didn’t she inform her superiors about it?”

At least 21 members of a wedding party were killed after a mini-truck they were travelling in fell into the Son river in Madhya Pradesh’s Sidhi district, an official said on Wednesday.

The accident in which more than 20 others were injured, occurred late on Tuesday when the driver lost control of the vehicle while crossing the Jogdaha bridge.

The mini-truck crashed through the railing and plunged into the river.

The wedding party was en route to Bahari in Sidhi from Deosar in Singrauli district.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has expressed grief over the incident.

The relief and rescue operations continued through the night. All bodies have been recovered. The injured were in hospital.

Alleging that the party had given prominence to money over sincerity, Bagepalli Assembly Constituency ticket aspirant and former MLA N Sampangi who missed the race to the ticket came down heavily on Congress high command and MP Veerappa Moily.

Addressing media people, Sampagi communicated his mistake about the party offering ticket to S N Subbareddy, who defeated Congress candidate in the last poll. “After overcoming CPM in a Gram Panchayat elections in 1998, we sorted out the party from village level. I filled in as KPCC General Secretary too. In any case, seniors didn’t think about this,” he included.

“At the point when Veerappa Moily needed to challenge to Lokasabha from this locale in 2009, after confronting three continuous defeats from Mangalore, we coordinated with him to save the party. In spite of the fact that numerous local leaders were against him, we worked for him. Subsequently, he got 26,000 votes from Bagepalli supporters. Subsequent to being chosen as Union minister he additionally said that ‘Sampangi gave me political resurrection following 14 years gap’. In any case, this is the thing that we got from him,” he said.

“There are no corruption charges against me. If the party cheats sincere Congressmen like us, there are many followers who believe us. The party can still change the decision, otherwise, I will discuss with the followers regarding the next step,” Sampangi said emotionally.

In a veiled attack on the government, Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Wednesday said that no matter what attempt is made to stall the development of Amethi, no one can stop his Lok Sabha constituency from becoming a world-class education hub.

Addressing a gathering after inaugurating a school here in his parliamentary constituency, the Congress chief also accused the Centre and state government for halting the progress of the state by taking away the big projects.

“After 10-15 years, when people would mention Singapore and California, they will also mention Amethi in the same breath,” Rahul said.
On Monday, Rahul Gandhi hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi while he was on a visit to a school in Amethi.

On being asked about the implementation of laws in villages by school students in Amethi, the Congress president had said that they should ask the same to the Prime Minister instead.

Rahul Gandhi kick-started his Amethi visit On Monday.

On his arrival at the Chowdhary Charan Singh International Airport in Lucknow, he faced protests from a group of party workers, alleging that the party had fallen to middlemen and demanded that the leadership should take action against such people.

Gandhi gave them a patient hearing and assured them of necessary action before leaving for Amethi by road.

There, he went straight to Shuklabazaar where he paid his condolences at the house of a party worker who passed away some time back. His cavalcade thereafter drove to Zainabganj where he met locals and party workers.

Rahul Gandhi also laid the foundations of some development projects. He met farmers and inaugurated a passport seva kendra, a road project, and a private school.

Documenting of nominations for the upcoming get-together race will start from today. As parties will begin issuing B structures and candidates start to hand over nomination papers,

The office of the state chief election commissioner has made elaborate preparations under the guidance of Central Election Commission.

The authorities have made courses of action to get nomination papers, scrutinize them, and allow withdrawals thereof. The commission has trained the officials about the legal intricacies of filing of nominations, how to discover arrangements if there should be an occurrence of lawful entanglements,

April 24 will be the last date for recording of nominations. Nominations papers can be documented on all working days with the exception of occasions, from 11 am to 3 pm. The commission, which was occupied with changing voters list, conveying of election staff, giving preparing and making mindfulness among voters, has now started to focus on nominations, election battles by parties and candidates, consistency with set of principles, overseeing of peace circumstance and guaranteeing smooth polling.

The nominations will be examined on April 25, and April 27 is the last day for withdrawal of nominations. Polling will happen on May 12, including of votes will be on May 15, and the whole assembly election process will finish up on May 18 according to the schedule reported by the commission.

Congress, which has released the list of 218 candidates until this point, and BJP, which brought out two records containing 154 names, will battle in the race. JD(S), which released list of 125 candidates in February itself, is yet to turn out with names of different candidates.

Congress, BJP and JD(S) have likewise started the undertaking of issuance of B forms to competitors. It is said that Congress will start issuance of B forms in a resort in the outskirts of the city from Tuesday.

The BJP on Tuesday again criticised the Congress for allegedly coining the term “saffron terror” to defame the Hindus and sought an apology from its leadership, even though the opposition party had a day earlier denied the charge.
“(Congress leaders) Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi should apologise to the Hindu community for defaming them globally and taking the Hindus for granted. You can’t take the Hindus for granted. We believe in development of all and appeasement of none,” Bharatiya Janata Party Spokesperson Sambit Patra said at a press conference he addressed along with newly elected Rajya Sabha member G.V.L. Narsimha Rao.

Patra had on Monday also, accused the Congress of coining the term and sought an apology from its leadership. However, the Congress had maintained that neither its President Rahul Gandhi nor any other party functionary had ever used the term “saffron terror” and that its political rivals were levelling “baseless allegations”.

On Tuesday, Patra demanded an apology from former Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram for allegedly using the term “saffron terror”.

The BJP leader said: “Rahul Gandhi and Chidambaram should hold a joint press conference and speak on the issue.”

Dubbing Rahul Gandhi’s thinking as “anti-Hindu”, the BJP leader said a telegram sent in 2009 by then US Ambassador Tim Roemer to the US State Department mentioned that “Rahul Gandhi told the US envoy that there was some support for the Lashkar-e-Taiba in certain sections of India’s Muslims, but the bigger threat may be of the rise of radical homegrown Hindu groups which create tension”.

“This is the position of the Congress. Rahul Gandhi needs to answer all these questions. We demand that he should seek apology for what he told the US Ambassador against the Hindus. He can’t just say that it was a passing statement and nothing to do with the party,” Patra said.

The fresh war of words between the two parties on the term “saffron terror” began after a Special National Investigation Agency (NIA) court in Hyderabad acquitted all five accused in the 2007 Mecca Masjid bomb blast case on Monday.

(IANS)

Aam Aadmi Party released its 2nd list of candidates for Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018 at the Bangalore Press Club. Incharge of state Political Affairs and Co-Convener, Sri Shivakumar Chengalraya released the list, briefly introduced the candidates and explained the reason why AAP is in the election fray.
People are eagerly looking for an alternate politics and change from the traditional politics of the state. Our Delhi Government’s work in the last three years, particularly in the field of Education and Health Care, has boosted our confidence. And got the praises all over the world for the revolutionary developments in Education & Health sectors, None of our candidates have any allegation of corruption or criminal or communal activity. AAP has set a standard by giving tickets to such clean people so that the voice of corrupt and criminals in the assembly is drowned and ordinary common people’s voice is heard, he said.
The Candidates are:
1. Asif Herkal – Devarahipparagi
2. Ajit Babu – Ramanagara
3. B R Bhaskar Prasad – Mahadevapura
4. A Ilangovan – Gandhinagar
5. Farooqsaab Nadaf – Belagavi (North)
6. Sadananda Metri – Belagavi (South)
7. Sanjeeva Kumar Karikal – Kalaburgi North
8. Dr. Sundara Gowda – Chickamagaluru
9. B Prabhuswamy – Gubbi
10. S F Patil – Dharawad (Rural)