Associated Press

History

2025: Withdrawal of funding from the US government

US authorities stop funding US newspapers Politico, The New York Times and the Associated Press, Elon Musk said in February 2025

2018: Using blockchain to catch plagiarists

In late August 2018, it became known that the Associated Press news agency began using blockchain to combat plagiarists. To do this, a collaboration was launched with the startup Civil Media.

Under the terms of the license agreement, the Associated Press will provide a partner with local and international news content, making it easier for news resources to access agency materials. In exchange, Civil will use the blockchain to search the Internet for those who copy and use Associated Press content without permission.

Associated Press began using blockchain to find those who copy news without permission

Civil hopes to use blockchain to solve the problem of the crisis of confidence in modern media, as well as to offer a new business model for the media. The startup plans to establish such cooperation with other representatives of the press.

According to Jim Kennedy, Senior Vice President for Strategy and Development of Corporate Applications at the Associated Press, the topic of compliance with licensing rights is now more relevant than ever, since the agency is worried that published materials can be used by people for free, as well as to create fake news and mislead readers.

The expression "fake news" began to be used after the president USA Donald Trump used it in the context of alleged interference Russia in the American elections. The term became the phrase of 2017 according to the English language Collins English Dictionary.

Civil founder and CEO Matthew Iles said the Associated Press partnership aims for content creators to be recognized - both in terms of authorship and compensation - for the work they have created. Media companies estimate that 50% to 70% of the material is republished without mentioning the source or compensation.^[1]

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