More than 34 newsrooms along with journalism students participate in CrossChek, working to “debunk rumours and false claims and accurately report confusing and misleading stories”, according to the project’s launch announcement.

CrossCheck partners will investigate news submitted though an online form, with AFP reviewing all final reports before publishing the results on the project’s website. The results can then be shared through social media and email, as well as being posted on CrossCheck’s Facebook and Twitter profiles.

Crucially, it seems that the original stories that CrossCheck deems false are not flagged on social media, raising the question whether people viewing false news will end up seeing its ultimate correction by CrossCheck.

The French presidential elections are rapidly becoming a major focus in fake news discussions: earlier this month, Facebook announced that it was bringing its anti-fake news tools to France, which also involves collaboration with the news media. Earlier we reported that the elections present an opportunity to boost trust in news media.