Even the large national media sites we aggregate from typically handle hundreds of stories a day rather than tens of thousands, and many have disabled their comment sections or moved them to external platforms due to moderation complexities.
As a platform that curates and delivers news from thousands of these sources daily, our massive scale creates unique trust and safety challenges. We’ve built our content strategy on five core principles: accuracy, transparency, accountability, fairness, and safety.
Everything we do is grounded in a comprehensive trust and safety framework that combines rigorous publisher vetting, AI-powered content monitoring, transparent community guidelines, and expert human review. This helps us ensure that users receive credible, relevant news while maintaining the highest standards of information integrity.
Multi-Layered Defense: Algorithmic Intelligence Meets Human Expertise
Trained to detect potentially harmful or deceptive content before it reaches users, our proprietary algorithms serve as our first line of defense. While our technology is state-of-the-art – advanced large language models, machine learning classifiers, and natural language processing – tech alone isn’t enough; human expertise is essential.
Under our integrated approach, AI-powered systems monitor all publisher and contributor content in real-time, automatically removing unsuitable material and flagging borderline content for human review. Guided by our experienced trust and safety leaders, our investment in dedicated moderation teams, combined with partnerships with verified and credible publishers, ensures that nuanced decisions requiring human judgment receive the attention they deserve.
Publisher Standards and Accountability
Everyone in our ecosystem, including users who comment on NewsBreak stories, must adhere to our shared Community Standards. These hold them accountable for any information they publish. Failure to comply with these standards risks disciplinary action, including immediate account termination for a serious violation.
In addition, publishers, contributors, and organizations providing community information are further governed by Standards and Guidelines specific to their content categories. In April 2025, we transitioned to a new Contributor Program that emphasizes content that is locally relevant, newsworthy, and compliant with our platform standards.
Community-Driven Safety
We recognize that trust is built through community engagement. Our users can easily flag concerning content from within our app, via the Report option under the menu icon, and all flagged material is reviewed promptly by our team. This community involvement not only helps us address issues quickly but also continuously improves our detection systems.
Advertising Safety and Brand Protection
The same rigorous standards that protect our users also extend to our advertiser community through comprehensive brand safety measures.
We leverage human-based content categorization, AI-driven placement controls, and manual review to help ensure that ads only appear in appropriate contexts. Our AI systems process the massive volume of content on our platform using Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB)-certified industry and product taxonomies, automatically categorizing content down to tier 3 classification. This enables precise category- and domain-level blocking tailored to each advertiser’s brand safety standards. Our granular approach protects advertisers from being associated with inappropriate material while maintaining the quality of the user experience.
Beyond placement controls, our specialist team deploys machine learning technology and manual review processes to ensure all advertisements comply with NewsBreak's Ad Policy through continuous monitoring of ad content, placement, and user feedback
We are one of the few ad platforms offering "report this ad" and "hide this ad” features, empowering our community to flag concerning content. Every user report triggers a manual review and advertiser follow-up to ensure continued compliance.
For our first-party advertisers, we maintain even higher standards through:
- Mandatory business verification
- AI-powered compliance insights
- Dedicated manual review teams
- Regular audits
This multi-layed approach creates a premium advertising environment that protects both the user experience and brand reputation while supporting the sustainability of local journalism.
Transparency and Learning From Our Mistakes
Our commitment to transparency means sharing how our systems perform:
- Our AI systems review 100% of content before publication
- Human reviewers examine flagged content within hours
- User reports receive prompt investigation and response
- We maintain detailed records of all content actions and account suspensions
While the vast majority of problematic stories never reach users because we catch them before publication, an unwanted or incorrect story occasionally does slip through our systems. When this happens, we are swift and transparent in our response – and conduct a thorough follow-up review for process improvement.
Recently, a third-party publisher in our network published a breaking news story about a fatal shooting, incorrectly identifying the location. The incident actually occurred in a neighboring township in the same county. This geographic error created confusion and concern among residents of the incorrectly named community, and local law enforcement identified this as misinformation on social media.
As soon as we were alerted to the potential error, we took immediate action and removed the story. Our content team then reviewed the source material, confirmed the geographic error, and promptly terminated the accounts of the publisher and two associated domains.
As part of our process review, our AI detection systems were updated to better identify and flag potential geographic inconsistencies in crime reporting to help prevent similar errors.
Our Ongoing Commitment
Whether facing misinformation, disinformation, or manipulation, we’re constantly evolving to adapt to new challenges while staying true to our core values. The trust that millions of Americans place in NewsBreak each day drives everything we do – from our investment in cutting-edge technology and empowered teams to our commitment to transparency when things go wrong.
Building and maintaining trust isn't just our responsibility, it’s the foundation of a healthy news ecosystem that serves communities across America.
