Tottori Pref. to Join Originator Profile Demonstration; Aims to Counter Fake, False Information on Internet

The Yomiuri Shimbun

18:30 JST, January 14, 2025

TOTTORI — The Tottori prefectural government said on Tuesday it will participate in a demonstration in which the digital technology called Originator Profile (OP) is used to identify the disseminators of information on articles and other content on the internet to counter misinformation and disinformation.

The demonstration will be carried out until March. The prefecture aims to introduce full-scale use of the technology in or after fiscal 2025 to publish information regarding disasters and disaster mitigation on its website.

According to the Originator Profile Collaborative Innovation Partnership (OPCIP), which runs the OP project, this is the first time nationwide that a demonstration of OP will be carried out by an administrative body.

OP is a technology that enables users to confirm the authenticity of online articles and advertisements by embedding an electronic identifier confirmed by third-party entities in each piece of information. It also allows users to confirm information that has not been falsified. The technology therefore is expected to be used to identify misinformation and disinformation.

The OPCIP, an association of 45 organizations including domestic and foreign media, is developing the technology.

In July last year, the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry adopted the OP project to support the development of technologies to counter disinformation and misinformation on the internet. The move came in the wake of the posting of fake rescue requests on social media after the Noto Peninsula Earthquake on New Year’s Day last year.

The Tottori prefectural government, which agrees with the concept of OP, requested the association’s cooperation and decided to participate in the project.

According to the prefecture and the association, the demonstration will be conducted on test pages that cannot be viewed by internet users. It will be confirmed whether the information on disasters and disaster mitigation sent mainly by the local government is correctly embedded with the electronic identifier when the pages are published or updated.

The demonstration will run from this month to March.

The prefecture plans to provide the information of disseminators on the prefecture’s website, starting in or after fiscal 2025.

The electronic identifiers will be provided mainly to the information regarding disasters and disaster mitigation for the time being. However, the prefecture said information about other areas such as welfare and living environments will also be covered in the future.

Through the demonstration, the association will examine areas for improvement that can help other municipalities when introducing the system.

“In times of disaster and other emergencies, websites run by public offices are extremely important,” said Tottori Gov. Shinji Hirai at a press conference on Tuesday. “We have a responsibility to provide reliable information online.”