NewsGuard now free on Microsoft Edge as part of expanded partnership

By published

Using Microsoft Edge will get you access to NewsGuard without a subscription fee.

Edge
Edge (Image credit: Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • NewsGuard and Microsoft announced an expanded partnership.
  • Microsoft Edge users have access to NewsGuard for free.
  • The partnership also includes Microsoft Bing gaining access to real-time data from NewsGuard.

Microsoft and NewsGuard announced an expanded partnership today. As part of the agreement, Microsoft will continue to sponsor NewsGuard's literacy programs. According to NewsGuard, these programs deliver NewsGuard to more than seven million patrons in the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany, and Italy through over 700 libraries. The literacy programs will expand into Australia and Canada later this year as well as other countries in the future. NewsGuard announced the expanded partnership earlier this week.

NewsGuard uses trained journalists to review and rate the credibility of news websites and the social media accounts of news sites. When you use NewsGuard, you see a rating next to links in search engine results and in social media feeds. NewsGuard usually costs $2.95 per month but as part of the partnership will be free to all Microsoft Edge users on both desktop and mobile devices. NewsGuard was already integrated into Microosft Edge on mobile devices before this announcement. Microsoft's Bing search engine will also have access to real-time data from NewsGuard as part of the new agreement.

Inside Microsoft, all Microsoft departments can now use NewsGuard ratings and labels in their products and services. NewsGuard highlights the Defending Democracy Program and teams within Microsoft Research who work to health care hoaxes, misinformation, and disinformation.

NewsGuard also announced that Kate O'Sullivan, general manager of digital diplomacy, Microsoft joined the global advisory board of NewsGuard.

You can read more about NewsGuard on Edge here or grab it for free from Microsoft (opens in new tab).

Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott

Sean Endicott is the news writer for Windows Central. If it runs Windows, is made by Microsoft, or has anything to do with either, he's on it. Sean's been with Windows Central since 2017 and is also our resident app expert. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com.
14 Comments
  • Cool. Still leaving it turned off since it has a history of false indicators.
  • Pretty much this. It'd be one thing if apps reporting "fake news" were outing or filtering the likes of Taboola or Revcontent, or ad content disguised as news articles. Most of these "fake news" content checkers, however, operate more along the lines of whose opinion the app developer doesn't like. (I.E. CNN good, Breitbart bad, etc...) And while google is the worst offender, I don't really trust Microsoft on this subject either. So, yeah. Microsoft, I love your software, and bing is probably the most "fair" and neutral search engine run by a major company, but this sucker is staying off.
  • Windows Central is fake news (just kidding)
  • Very true. It's better for people to read multiple sources and do research themselves. The beauty of the internet means free information. When they say truth tends to be left leaning, it really means the left seems to control the 'truth" an example is the high school kid they trashed by cutting the beginning of the clip, the Maga teen and the native American who crossed into the group. The news only showed him surrounded by Maga teens, but cut our the part where he walked into the group himself and got in their faces.
  • Here we go, because its only one side that cuts clips to show a convenient, misplaced quote right?
  • No, both sides do it, but at least it seems to me that left leaning news has more representation. The more conservative news is largely "represented" by Fox, and that seems to me to be more like tabloid stuff at best. It is up to each person to try to soberly and even handedly sift through the hype and the advertising and try to find out what is actually going on. Remember the words of Mark Twain, "If you don't read the news, you'll be uninformed. If you read the news, you'll be misinformed."
  • How true, its amazing how we are reliving 100 years ago on many accounts.
  • I'll take my chance with Newsgaurd extension.
    Considering you must pay for it before today, it must be good enough for them to monetize.
    Also, remember it does not stop you from reading any news, it only flags it for you to decide.
  • And here come the excuses from people who wish to protect their biases....
  • And here come unintentional irony and a profound lack of self-awareness.
  • Awesome. Was in trial phase, now I don't have to pay at all.
    They still have few things to fix
  • (Fake)NewsGuard. Fixed it.
  • Make it a fee feature so I can pay for it...!
  • I like NewsGuard. I almost never know it's there, but occasionally it saves me the effort of checking unusual sources on mediabiasfactcheck.