The Number of ‘Fact-Checking’ Organizations is Unstoppable

While a large part of the world’s media and media in general struggle to find their place under the digital sun, with some succeeding and others being trampled, a segment of so-called internet media has been growing for years. In 2008, there were only eleven such ‘media’ organizations, and probably no one knew about them at the time, nor did they attract much attention. Thus, these ‘media’ survived on the margins of the internet until 2020 when the whole world learned about them. After years spent in the depths of the World Wide Web, they rose like the mythical Phoenix and presented themselves to the world. Fact-checkers, fact checkers, or ‘faktčekeri’ appeared on the internet, social media, and platforms just to keep an eye on this beleaguered people, who can no longer recognize lies and deceptions, thus needing additional context about everything happening around them.

It is precisely these organizations, about which much has been said after the pandemic, because they have done nothing smart or accurate, that have grown in recent years. Their number increased in 2022 to 424 fact-checking media or organizations operating on all continents, specifically in 100 countries and in 69 languages, according to research by Duke Reporters’ Lab.

The same research states that since 2018, the number of fact-checking media has grown by 47 percent and that since 2020, there has been significant growth of such organizations in Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. They also note that the average lifespan of such a fact-checking site is less than six years, and that 139 of them, which are now inactive, lasted less than three years.

The research indicates that there may have been an oversaturation of the audience with such content and organizations, as in 71 countries there are two or more such organizations verifying the accuracy of information. They state that the growth rate of these organizations could slow down because such organizations do not exist in countries with repressive governments, limited press freedom, and concerns for journalists’ safety.

The global media freedom index for 2023 rates media conditions as ‘very serious’ in 31 countries. Almost half of these countries (15 out of 31) do not have fact-checking websites. These include Bahrain, Djibouti, Eritrea, Honduras, Kuwait, Laos, Nicaragua, North Korea, Oman, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Vietnam, and Yemen.

Better Knows the Neighbor

Interestingly, there are 62 fact-checking organizations in 16 other countries on the ‘very serious’ list. In eight of those countries, there is more than one organization. India, which ranks 161st out of 180 on the World Media Freedom Index, is home to half of those 62 fact-check organizations. Other countries with more than one fact-checking organization include Bangladesh, China, Venezuela, Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt, and Myanmar. Additionally, fact-checkers from Canada lead Fact-Nameh for Iran, Tech 4 Peace for Iraq, and Verify-Sy for Syria. Who better can verify facts from Syria, Iraq, or Iran than someone in their room in Canada? What a beauty.

There are actually many such examples; for instance, Indian Fact Crescendo launched two new fact-checking organizations in 2022 — one for Thailand and another globally focused on climate issues, as there is also a global consensus on that which must not be contradicted.

Facebook relies on the aforementioned third-party organizations for fact-checking, and when it comes to deciding what is true and what is misinformation in Croatia, that is done by Faktograf, on which we will not waste words.