Product Overview: FactCheckEU
FactCheckEU is a comprehensive fact-checking initiative launched ahead of the 2019 European Parliament elections, aimed at countering misinformation and promoting factual accuracy across the European Union. Here’s an overview of what the platform does and its key features:
Purpose and Scope
FactCheckEU is a collaborative project of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), bringing together 19 European media outlets from 13 countries. The platform is designed to fact-check statements related to the EU, debunk election-related hoaxes, and provide accurate information to the public.
Key Features
Multi-Lingual Coverage
FactCheckEU publishes content in 10 different languages, including English, German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish, and others. All content is translated into English to ensure a wide reach across the European public.
Collaborative Fact-Checking
The platform is supported by 19 media partners, all of whom are signatories of the IFCN’s Code of Principles. These partners include well-known fact-checking organizations such as AFP Factuel, CORRECTIV.Faktencheck, FactCheckNI, and others. This collaboration ensures a robust and diverse approach to fact-checking.
Q&A and Audience Engagement
FactCheckEU features a Q&A section based on Libération’s CheckNews, which allows readers to ask questions directly. This section helps create a direct link with the audience and reinforces trust in the media by providing answers regardless of partisan preferences.
Disinformation Analysis
The platform is committed to investigating the spread of disinformation within the EU. It analyzes how false information moves across countries and identifies the sources of these hoaxes, providing valuable insights into the mechanisms of misinformation.
Independence and Funding
FactCheckEU is entirely independent of EU institutions and governmental actors. It was developed by Libération and Datagif with support from the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter Institute, the Google News Initiative, and the Open Society Initiative for Europe.
Integration with Social Media
The platform works in conjunction with social media platforms like Facebook. Nearly all FactCheckEU participants are able to rate and review claims on Facebook, which helps reduce the distribution of false news by up to 80% once a story is rated as false.
Transparency and Standards
All participating organizations adhere to the IFCN’s Code of Principles, which includes commitments to transparency, ethics, methodology, and impartiality. This ensures that the fact-checking process is rigorous and trustworthy.
In summary, FactCheckEU is a powerful tool in the fight against misinformation in Europe, leveraging a collaborative approach, multi-lingual coverage, and robust fact-checking standards to provide accurate and reliable information to the public.