Microsoft’s internet browser is flagging Daily Mail UK content as untrustworthy journalism as part of a feature designed to fight fake news.
Visitors to Mail Online who use Microsoft Edge are presented with a warning message when visiting the dailymail.co.uk, urging them to look elsewhere for accuracy.
The message reads: “Proceed with caution: this website generally fails to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability.”
The message, which is produced by a third-party startup called NewsGuard, tells readers to proceed carefully given that “the site regularly publishes content that has damaged reputations, caused widespread alarm, or constituted harassment or invasion of privacy”.
It gives the Daily Mail one out of five on credibility. The NewsGuard score is calculated by industry veterans in a bid to establish industry-standard benchmarks for which news websites should be trusted.
NewsGuard employs analysts to manually check whether sites meet a series of journalistic standards. It makes all its judgements public and invites outlets to respond to criticism and/or improve their standards to gain a higher rating.
The inclusion of Mail Online on the list of sites with a red rating has prompted a swift response from the paper, which says it is in discussions with NewsGuard to have this "egregiously erroneous classification resolved as soon as possible”.
Steve Brill, a NewsGuard co-founder, said the Mail Online verdict had been reached in a transparent manner.
“We spell out fairly clearly in the label exactly how many times we have attempted to contact them. The analyst that wrote this write-up got someone on the phone who, as soon he heard who she was and where she was calling from, hung up. We would love to hear if they have a complaint or if they change anything," he said.
The newly-instated system comes as fake news has plagued digital platforms, such as Facebook and Google, and led to false information being spread globally.
The NewsGuard knock back isn't the only criticism the Daily Mail has received in recent times. At the tail end of 2018, Media Watch host Paul Barry, as well as several high-profile Australian journalists, criticised the media company for plagiarism, citing a number of examples.
AdNews has approached the Mail Online Australia for more.
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