Emerge and The Penta Network Launch Trusted Voices, A Platform To Promote Information Transparency For News Content
Emerge and The Penta Network Launch Trusted Voices, A Platform To Promote Information Transparency For News Content
February 20, 2019
February 20, 2019 (Los Angeles, California): Emerge and the Penta Network, in collaboration with Torch, announced the launch of Trusted Voices, a blockchain-based platform to champion increased transparency in the media. Trustedvoices.io brings source and content material traceability to news consumers as it is shared across different media platforms.
As part of a pioneering “Blockchain for Good” initiative, Penta Co-Founder and CTO, Steve Melnikoff wants to connect media consumers directly with the people whose unique experiences are the foundations of the stories we see and hear in the news. “Verified source material can empower individuals and communities through trusted information custody,” says Dr. Steve Melnikoff, explaining that information custody is one of the core value propositions of the platform.
Trusted Voices is a non-profit, decentralized project spearheaded by two established blockchain companies. Emerge, a nominee for both the 2018 Global United Nations Sustainable Development Awards and Newsweek’s 2019 Blockchain for Impact Awards, builds decentralized solutions for pressing issues in the global movement of people, goods, and information. Emerge proudly builds on the Penta Network, a next generation blockchain platform designed to provide both open access blockchain infrastructure and enterprise blockchain solutions. Penta’s mission is to develop the world’s most economically inclusive and decentralized blockchain platform, capable of powering business applications in the digital economy.
Asked why Penta chose Trusted Voices as its first social impact project, Penta CEO David Ritter said, “Many leading media organizations are owned and controlled by private, profit-seeking organizations. It is difficult to know whether information in the news media is reliable, unbiased, and from trusted sources. News consumers depend on the integrity of journalists and media organizations, without the ability to analyze their sources and methods. We need Trusted Voices now more than ever to empower news consumers by providing greater information transparency.”
The first topic taken up by Trusted Voices is the Central American Migrant Caravan. Emerge CEO, Lucia Gallardo, who is from Honduras, felt the Migrant Caravan was an important story to showcase the potential of Trusted Voices, noting that many international media companies had done a poor job of covering the matter. “We live in an age where the news is delivered through 24 hour news cycles, social media, and mobile devices, making it increasingly difficult for even trusted media sources to properly vet stories before they have been made public. David and I were in Tijuana spending hours upon hours with the Caravan, and what we were seeing was not consistent with coverage we would watch during the evening news. Trusted Voices is a first step at fostering accountability and transparency when it comes to the source material that fuels our news.”
The announcement of Trusted Voices’ launch falls on the UN’s World Day of Social Justice, the 2019 theme for which is, “If You Want Peace & Development, Work for Social Justice.” Emerge and Penta believe trusted information custody is an important contribution to social justice, and a technical innovation promising greater transparency in how information is collected, dispersed, and utilized. This has important implications for how news narratives influence and shape public discourse and policymaking, a notion that is expressed by the Trusted Voices slogan: How we tell stories matters.
For more information,
David Ritter (Penta) & Lucia Gallardo (Emerge)
can be reached at:
