Fighting misinformation with AI: Zefr partners with Adverif.ai

Zefr, a provider of global brand suitability tools across walled gardens, has announced the acquisition of Adverif.ai, an Israeli-based AI company focused on identifying and defunding misinformation at scale. 

The acquisition provides additional machine learning, fact-checking and data science expertise to help brands avoid and measure misinformation across global platforms

Adverif.ai’s AI-driven approach to misinformation applies custom integrations with over 50 fact-checking organisations around the world to train machine learning algorithms to identify, label, and measure misinformation at rapid speed.

AdVerif.ai’s Israel-based team of data scientists and engineers, led by founder and CEO Or Levi, will join Zefr’s technology organisation and be based out of Tel Aviv.

Defunding misinformation

Adverif.ai’s technology will enable Zefr’s customers to measure and target content based on their brand suitability standards – especially in the misinformation category, which has traditionally been one of the most challenging for marketers. 

“Defunding misinformation is critical for brands, and it requires investment in technology solutions to ensure accuracy and scalability.” said Chris Murphy, SVP of Global Business Development, Zefr. “After diligencing the industry for a year, it became clear that Adverif.ai’s AI and tech-led approach was uniquely equipped to bring a scalable, unbiased and data-driven lens to the topic and seamlessly integrate with our existing platform, Cognition AI.”

In June 2022, the Global Alliance of Responsible Media (GARM) announced that misinformation would be the 12th category of its brand safety and brand suitability framework, reinforcing its importance to the future ad-supported media.

Rob Rakowiitz, Initiative Lead, GARM said: “Misinformation is one of the most difficult of harmful content categories for the advertising industry and regulators to address, and the consequences of inappropriately addressing are troubling. We’re excited to see Zefr making this investment, as we start to implement our shared work on misinformation in this space.  

“In our work on misinformation, we’ve identified scale and human oversight as critical barriers for the industry to overcome. We see Zefr’s move aligned with our insight and our shared goal to effectively demonetize misinformation.”

The acquisition comes on the heels of Zefr’s announcement as a global brand safety and brand suitability measurement partner on TikTok, as well as the selection by Meta to build a brand suitability verification product for the Facebook Feed.