AFP Fact Check
AFP Fact Check is a department of the Agence France-Presse (AFP), the world's oldest news agency, with the goal of combating disinformation on the internet.[1][2] Employing over one hundred fact-checking journalists writing in twenty-four languages[1], AFP Fact Check's work has been shared on a global scale, and is affiliated with Meta as a fact-checking partner.[2][3][4] AFP Fact Check also offers digital courses for journalists interested in refining their fact-checking and investigative skills.[5]
History and Management
Established in 2017, a dedicated fact-verification department within the Agence France-Presse was formed as a result of work surrounding the French elections that year.[1] The team is managed from AFP headquarters in Paris, France as well as from regional bureaus in Washington, Montevideo, Nicosia, and Hong Kong.[1] Globally, Grégoire Lemarchand leads the digital investigation team and is aided by Sophie Nicholson and Julie Charpentrat.[1][6][not in citation given]
AFP Fact Check also has teams specializing in the coverage of the regions of Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe, France, Latin America/Spain, the Middle East, and North America.[1]
Initiatives
Fact checkers both identify and rate false and misleading claims circulating on social media.[6][7] To correct the misinformation, journalists conduct source interviews with government officials, policy experts, and those mentioned in the claim at hand.[7][8][9] Fact checkers also cite government documents, press releases, and use investigative journalism techniques to weed out false information.[6][8][9] Such strategies include using Google Earth to situate photos and videos, reverse image search to trace the origins of an image, and historical context to determine whether a claim is viable.[6][8][9] The result of such investigations are articles posted on the AFP Fact Check website and shared on social media platforms including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Fact Check Topics
Specific focus is given to politics, health, and the environment, with a large number of articles covering vaccination requirements, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, political and electoral news, and climate change. AFP Fact Check has published a particularly high amount of articles about electoral politics in the United States, including during the contentious 2020 presidential election, and in Nigeria as the country elected Bola Tinubu as its president in 2023.
Digital Investigation Materials
Another initiative of AFP Fact Check are digital investigative courses and videos.[5] At no cost, journalists can sign up for open-access courses on digital investigative techniques, including efficient searching, geolocation, and reliable sourcing.[5] Similar videos, offering tips on finding the origin of a photo or video and locating previous versions of social media posts, are made available on the AFP website as well as YouTube. Case study examples conducted by AFP journalists include debunking false pro-Russian claims about casualties in Bucha, Ukraine, fake articles surrounding Kenyan politics, and tracing the origin of campaign donations in the United States.[5]
As the deadly COVID-19 pandemic spread globally, Meta, AFP Fact Check, and publications across the world partnered with the Poynter Institute to develop the hashtag #CoronavirusFacts, meant to give specific attention to false claims surrounding the disease.[10][11] Stories marked online under the tag include misinformation surrounding government vaccine mandates and claims that COVID-19 causes diseases such as cancer.
Ukrinform Partnership
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, fact-checking journalists at AFP worked alongside the Austria Press Agentur, an Austrian news agency, to train fact checkers for Ukrinform, Ukraine's largest news agency. Such training was the first of its kind, and Ukrinform journalists have since published upwards of sixty fact-checking articles.[12][13]
Impact
AFP fact checkers reach a global audience in dozens of languages.[2] Posts are shared daily on social media, and users can send tips to journalists through social media messaging and WhatsApp if they believe they may have seen a false or misleading claim. During the 2022 presidential election in Brazil, then-candidate Luiz Inácio da Silva shared an Portuguese-language AFP fact checker's post.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 "Meet the Team". Fact Check. 2023-01-18. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 "How AFP Has Built a Global Fact-Checking Operation". How AFP Has Built a Global Fact-Checking Operation. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
- ↑ "Meta's Third-Party Fact-Checking Program | Meta Journalism Project". Meta's Third-Party Fact-Checking Program | Meta Journalism Project. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
- ↑ "Where We Have Fact-Checking". A Map of Meta's Global Third-Party Fact-Checking Partners. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 "AFP Digital Investigation videos, tutorials and case studies". AFP Digital Courses. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 "Top tips for global fact checkers from AFP". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Weaponizing fact-checking: What Canada needs to know". The Monitor. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Gray, Barbara. "LibGuides: Fact Checking & Verification for Reporting: Fact-Checking Your Reporting". researchguides.journalism.cuny.edu. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 "What is fact-checking". Ballotpedia. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
- ↑ "CoronaVirusFacts Alliance". Poynter. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
- ↑ "COVID-19: POYNTER RESOURCES". Poynter. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
- ↑ "Ukrainian news agency trains in fact-checking with AFP and APA". AFP.com. 2023-03-28. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
- ↑ "Ukrainian news agency Ukrinform begins fact check production, with the help of AFP, APA and the Gulbenkian Foundation". www.ukrinform.net. 28 March 2023. Retrieved 2023-04-15.
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