Cision Buys 'Fake News' Monitor Factmata

In the US, global comms intelligence company Cision has acquired social media and news media monitoring and analytics product Factmata, which uses AI to identify and track 'fake news' across articles, blogs, tweets and other social media conversations. Terms were not disclosed.

Factmata provides tools to help users understand online content, and identify news it considers harmful, in areas such as racism, sexism and disinformation. Users can find out who is creating the content, get clues as to why, and see how it impacts their brand reputation or their audience. Specifically, Factmata applies AI to uncover the themes driving online conversations, detecting risky and harmful narratives, and identifying the influencers driving them.

Factmata CEO Antony Cousins (pictured) comments: 'We believe our narrative monitoring technology has the potential to change the way brands do business, by better understanding themselves through the lens of how media and consumers perceive them. Cision will enable us to apply our AI to one of the richest media databases in the world, pioneering a new era of media monitoring for businesses looking to be ahead of the curve'.

Web sites: www.cision.com and www.factmata.com .