Integral Ad Science (Nasdaq: IAS), a global leader in digital media quality, today announced a new partnership with The Global Disinformation Index (GDI), making IAS the first ad verification company to help marketers avoid misinformation content based on GDI’s standards. Building on IAS’s expertise in brand safety and suitability, this partnership further protects brands from running ads on sites that GDI has identified for misinformation. 

“Our mission to be the benchmark for trust and transparency in digital media quality has never been more critical. With the rise of brand risk globally, we’re providing highly advanced tools for marketers to safeguard their brands and avoid misinformation content,” said Lisa Utzschneider, CEO, Integral Ad Science. “This partnership with GDI is a market first, building on our strong brand safety and suitability tools to offer expanded global coverage and to classify more sources of misinformation, which means greater protection for our clients.”

When IAS identifies potential sources of misinformation through its artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm, these sites will now also be validated by GDI’s trusted and independent assessment of news content and risk. IAS will also add domains that GDI detects organically to ensure the most complete coverage for advertisers. Using this proprietary methodology, IAS now provides even greater protection for its customers on a global scale. The combination of IAS’s advanced AI capabilities with GDI’s independent assessment to detect sources of misinformation gives advertisers confidence that their campaigns run on quality news platforms and avoid misinformation sites.

According to the latest IAS Media Quality Report (MQR), brand risk has increased globally, with marketers requiring more advanced tools to protect brand reputation. IAS is committed to helping marketers manage brand risk with the latest tools available and this new partnership with The Global Disinformation Index offers critical new capabilities.

GDI is a trusted third-party that sets the standard for what qualifies as disinformation and focuses on restoring trust in media sites around the world by providing real-time automated risk ratings. The GDI’s risk assessment is built off human-powered analyses, based on the international Journalism Trust Initiative standard, alongside cutting-edge AI that catalogues millions of pages per week across hundreds of thousands of domains. GDI currently covers 18 media markets and six languages globally.

“Our new partnership with IAS is a powerful step forward for digital advertisers, and we’re proud to be part of catalysing change across the industry to stop the dissemination of disinformation online,” said Clare Melford, co-founder, and executive director, GDI. “Working with IAS, our combined strengths will change the way disinformation is detected and avoided, ultimately disrupting the incentives to create it.”