NewsGuard, the leading provider of news reliability data and machine-readable false narratives for reputation management, public relations, and media monitoring companies, has announced a “Custom Brand Misinformation Monitoring” service for brands that protects them beyond traditional media monitoring capabilities.NewsGuard’s Custom Brand Misinformation Monitoring service provides early warnings and tracking of provably false narratives related to a brand, with analysis culminating in a NewsGuard report providing brands with a detailed assessment of the claim by an independent, accountable journalism organization that can be used publicly to debunk a false narrative. NewsGuard’s independent research debunks provably false information and provides stakeholders with accurate, transparent, and evidence-backed insights to defend brand reputation.“It’s no longer enough for communications executives to have media monitoring tools summarize sentiment and coverage of their brands online,” said Steven Brill, (pictured above), co-CEO at NewsGuard. “They also need the ability to track new threats from across the open web and have access to an independent rebuttal done with the highest journalistic standards and full transparency. NewsGuard’s Custom Misinformation Monitoring Service gives communications executives early warnings about potential misinformation, provides real-time reports of emerging harmful narratives, and delivers transparent and accountable debunkings of false claims designed to be cited including publicly as part of communications responses.”NewsGuard provides PR teams with independent, factual information when brand misinformation spreads onlineBrill added that the new service should not be confused with more conventional public relations advocacy. “NewsGuard will not be relevant,” he explained, “in a situation where a company believes, even rightfully, that it has been the subject of public criticism that is a matter of opinion or policy debate. In these situations, the company may have good reason to seek help in challenging the legitimacy of such arguments or the credentials of its advocates. But that is not a service NewsGuard provides. Rather, this service is limited to addressing the new and increasingly widespread phenomenon of provably false narratives attacking companies and brands and to providing up to the minute warnings and information about the disinformation campaigns behind them.”“One well-known example from the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic is the totally unfounded attacks on telecommunications companies in the U.S. and Europe, claiming that 5G technology was the cause of the virus,” added NewsGuard co-CEO Gordon Crovitz. “We determined that these fabricated claims, which led to violent attacks against telecommunications employees, were pushed by Kremlin propagandists because Russia was behind in developing the technology and wanted to discredit it. Today, that kind of one-off attack on a commercial product is becoming a near-daily occurrence, plaguing retailers, packaged goods companies, healthcare providers, financial services firms, and all other varieties of brands, undermining them and reducing the trust required for the smooth functioning of free markets.”Round-the-Clock Protection“Using NewsGuard’s proprietary and ever-expanding list of known bad actors and our unique misinformation expertise, NewsGuard’s Custom Brand Misinformation Monitoring service monitors and detects when mentions of a brand spike among known bad actors on social media and the open web, yielding instant alerts and then detailed debunks,” said Sarah Brandt, EVP Partnerships at NewsGuard. “This service provides brands with round-the-clock alerts, adding a new level of protection for brands as well as providing detailed explanations and debunks of false claims made in targeted misinformation attacks.”