“Providing the public with accurate information about COVID-19 is crucial, especially as Africa′s coronavirus response is regularly obstructed by fake news,”
Opera News, one of the world’s leading browser providers for digital content, is partnering with the African Press Organisation Group (APO) to boost the prominence of truthful news articles related to the spread of COVID-19 across Africa. With this move, the APO Group Newsroom website will now be integrated into the Opera News platform used by 200 million users worldwide.
Both organisations say that this partnership stems from the need to reduce the consumption of misleading news articles that include deliberate disinformation about COVID-19 in different African countries. It will provide millions of Opera users in the African region with official information from trusted and reputable online sources. They have both committed to fact-checking and ensuring that anything that could be misleading is nipped in the bud.
“Providing the public with accurate information about COVID-19 is crucial, especially as Africa′s coronavirus response is regularly obstructed by fake news,” said APO Group Founder and Chairman, Nicolas Pompigne-Mognard. “This initiative will provide the millions of Africans who use Opera mobile applications with access to genuine, credible news content. We are proud to join forces with Opera to ensure that truthful, helpful, and potentially life-saving information gains wider prominence in Africa.”
Regarding the integration of the APO Group Newsroom into the Opera News platform, Jørgen Arnesen, from the Mobile Browsers section at Opera said that this will benefit those searching for information on the virus. “We just hit a new record of 200 million users with Opera News, which positions our news service as one of the largest in the world. We believe our partnership with APO Group is a great fit for our mobile apps and will benefit hundreds of millions of users who search for COVID-19 information every day on the Opera Mini browser and the Opera News app.”
Users looking to read the APO Group feed of news releases on the Opera Mini browser can tap on the Coronavirus Channel tab in the browser’s newsfeed. Once there, they will easily identify the news releases as they appear under the Africa Newsroom option.
By CivSource Team