French cloud software provider Wiztopic announced a partnership with Euronext Corporate Services, a subsidiary of the stock exchange Euronext. Euronext will offer its clients the option of adopting the Wiztrust blockchain certification platform to combat fake news for listed companies.
If an individual copies and manipulates a corporate announcement, it could affect the company’s stock price. Wiztopic’s platform will certify corporate press releases on blockchain, providing an extra layer of security and trust for the investors and other parties.
Founded in 2014, the startup claims it was the first blockchain platform to certify corporate content. Currently, 20% of the information on French stock market indexes CAC 40 and SBF 120 is certified on Wiztrust’s certification platform and distributed through Wiztopic. Listed companies such as industry powerhouses Axa, Allianz, Credit Agricole, Natixis, Renault and L’Oreal also work with Wiztopic for information distribution and certification services.
This sort of certification usually involves creating a hash or fingerprint of the content which is stored on the blockchain. If the content is tweaked in any way, the hash won’t match.
Apart from the blockchain solution, the companies also agreed to collaborate on distributing news. Wiztopic’s investor and media rooms will be combined with Euronext Corporate Services’ webcasting and investor CRM.
“Communication has been one of our four main pillars ever since Euronext Corporate Services was founded, and we are convinced that Wiztopic’s technology will support our issuer customers in accelerating the digitization of their communication in a secured environment” said Head of Euronext Corporate Services, Mathieu Caron.
The dissemination of fake news is a social problem with consequences beyond stock price fluctuations. Fake news played a significant role in the 2016 U.S. elections as well as in the Brazilian 2018 presidential elections. To combat this issue in 2020, news agency Association Press (AP) and blockchain firm Everipedia collaborated on a project that enabled AP to distribute U.S. Presidential election race calls using blockchain, which verified whether the information was legitimate.
Other blockchain initiatives are emerging to combat fake news across all industry sectors. The Italian news agency ANSA partnered with EY to develop a blockchain system for tracking news sources in light of the panic created by the distribution of misleading Covid-19 related news. Last year, the New York Times announced a blockchain-based project to verify media sources and address misinformation in the industry, and a prototype has already been built.
Update: The title and story was updated to clarify that it is a sales partnership and its optional for Euronext firms to adopt the solution.
