Le Monde helps users spot fake news with Snapchat Discover
Since the American elections news agenda dominated by "fake news" in 2016, the fake news problem not only did not go away but got even worse, leaving many people to believe that they are reading a 'normal' news article while it might have been fabricated by the 'fake news' websites. A French daily afternoon newspaper Le Monde published since 1944 turned to Snapchat Discover to tackle the fake news issue in the light of France's national elections on April 23. The newspaper's fact-checking team, Les Décodeurs, that consists of 13 people works hard to fact-check the news stories and specific websites and share results on Le Monde's Facebook and Twitter. On Snapchat, Le Monde Discover team took an educational approach explaining to users how to spot fake news.
The team effort
The 7-people Le Monde Snapchat Discover team creates a new 12-snap edition every day, seven days a week, with some editions focusing purely on identifying hoax stories and tools that can help one spot fake news.
“The idea is not to point to one fake-news story after another, as there is so much of it, but to educate our audience to have good reflexes when they stumble on suspicious information,” said Le Monde’s Snapchat Discover editor Jean-Guillaume Santi.
The newspaper uses Snapchat Discover not only to publish stories but also to interact with its readers. Le Monde's team often responds to users directly in the chat messages if questions users ask are straightforward or reworks answers to more complicated questions into a new story on Discover. The media also found 'debates' format appealing to its users who are encouraged to send their opinions in video snaps which are then shared in a separate story a few days later.
A daily job
Le Monde launched on Snapchat Discover in September 2016 sharing videos, infographics and articles as a preview of the newspaper's content:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_Glx8cpK24
Snapchat users' interest to Le Monde Snapchat Discover has been in higher demand recently which the newspaper explains by the approaching elections. The team works hard to produce Snapchat content that helps the readers understand the differences between the candidates and their campaign promises, clarifies the meaning of political jargon, and in general is easy for users to get their heads around.
France national elections are taking place on April 23, 2017.
