The head of News Media Holding proposed to take measures to combat fakes

On April 4, 2025, the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation hosted a round table on the topic: "Fake news. How fake media accounts in social networks threaten Russians and how the media can protect themselves from content theft." Maxim Iksanov, CEO of News Media Holding, proposed measures to combat fakes, from local to large—scale ones at the level of government regulation.

According to the head of the holding, fake media accounts have become a systemic threat due to the lack of basic verification of sources. Neural networks create deepfakes, public publications distort news, and users lack the experience and tools to verify information.

"A channel may have a large audience, but it may not have an editorial office. And the internal editorial office provides a completely different level of fake filtering."

Maxim Iksanov noted that the channel may look decent from the outside and initially inspire confidence, but there is no guarantee that after two months of existence without the absence of external regulation, it will not start publishing fake news.

The News Media Holding Experience

News Media Holding uses multi-level fact-checking: each news item is cross-checked by independent sources. But even this is not enough if the fake has already got online: then it is important to refute it quickly and competently.

The CEO of News Media Holding called for cooperation between media, regulators and IT companies to create an effective system of protection against fakes and theft of content: "Our common goal is to maintain the trust of the audience and ensure the security of the information space."

In order to achieve the goal, you can do the following::

• To introduce mandatory labeling of official media in social networks by analogy with the "blue checkmarks".
• To develop domestic content protection technologies, since so far no artificial intelligence is able to separate fakes from the truth.
• Create a rapid response system for cases of theft of content, fake accounts and the appearance of fakes.

About the event

A round table in the Civic Chamber of the Russian Federation brought together leading experts in the field of media, information policy and digital security. The event was organized by the Commission for the Development of the Information Community, Mass Media and Mass Communications.

Among the participants:

• Sabitov Rifat Abdulvagapovich, Chairman of the RF CC Commission, Deputy General Director of VGTRK
• Gorelkin Anton Vadimovich, Chairman of the Management Board of ROCIT, First Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Information Policy
• Georgy Rudolfovich Volkov, Deputy Chairman of the Security Commission of the Russian Federation
• Lazarov Alan Albertovich, Association of Lawyers of Russia
• Berezina Elena Anatolyevna, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of Rossiyskaya Gazeta
• Konstantin Golub, Director of Government Relations at VK
• and other representatives of the media, the IT sector, and regulators.