The JournalList trust.txt ecosystem is expressed as a social graph of websites owned by media organizations, publishers, media associations, and their suppliers. It also includes the social network accounts associated with those organizations. The purpose of trust.txt is to make these relationships visible in a transparent and standard way. It is based on the principal that you are known by the company you keep.
For example, publishers that belong to press associations (at the state, local, or national level) indicate that they are part of the press and are invested in journalism, rather than simply another website on the web.
The relationship between these organizations are described by the use of the trust.txt file that is placed on the website under the /.well-known directory. The specification of trust.txt can be found here at the JournalList website. It has also been submitted as an Internet Draft here. It has also been registered with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) as a well-known resource here.
The diagram below is a graphical representation of the JournalList trust.txt ecosystem. The blue circles are Publishers, the Green circles are Associations, and the Yellow circles are Vendors.
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