Manipulation of information: Rise in pro-govt 'fact-checking' sites sparks concern in Europe

Nevin Al Sukari - Sana'a - FRANKFURT, Dec 13 — A growing tide of government-friendly and politically influenced fact-checking projects in Europe is making it harder for citizens to tell truth from propaganda, disinformation experts warn, with a new Russian initiative the latest to raise eyebrows.

Independent fact-checking, which uses digital investigation techniques and journalism skills to debunk false claims, is considered a key tool in combatting misinformation and is used by major platforms like TikTok and Meta-owned Facebook.

But as the manipulation of information grows ever more sophisticated, concerns are mounting about fresh initiatives that present themselves as genuine fact-checking outfits while pushing their own agenda.

In Hungary, the newly launched Faktum “fact-checking” website — backed by pro-government newspaper Mandiner — publishes articles that predominantly try to defend the government and criticise its opponents.

One post examines whether nationalist premier Viktor Orban’s cabinet “is really letting education deteriorate”, as the opposition claims. Another asks whether Hungarian families would be better off under the opposition’s proposed tax system. Predictably, the conclusion in both cases is no.

Russia, which already used the “War on Fakes” website to disseminate what experts said was state propaganda, last month unveiled plans to establish a Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN).

Media rights group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) expressed concern about the move.

“The aim is not so much to convince, but to sow confusion about the facts, about reality,” Jeanne Cavelier, head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, told AFP.

‘Credibility’

Russian media quoted Vladimir Tabak, the head of the Kremlin-affiliated NGO ANO Dialog, as saying that the international network would unite those who “share our views and values”.

Tabak himself is under US sanctions for attempting to influence this year’s US presidential election, including through the creation of bot accounts designed to spread disinformation on social media platforms.

“We have to be vigilant about it,” said Cavelier. “Fact-checking in Russia won’t be based on facts, but on the so-called truth delivered by the political power with no safeguards, no independence.”

The GFCN’s moniker mirrors that of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) which brings together more than 170 organisations worldwide and is housed at Poynter, a US-based nonprofit journalism and research organisation.

Signatories to the IFCN, and to its European counterpart EFCSN, are regularly vetted by external assessors and must comply with a code of principles that includes transparency of sources, funding and methodology, as well as a commitment to political non-partisanship.

AFP’s own fact-checking service is a signatory to both the IFCN and the EFCSN, and works with Meta and TikTok.

“Fact-checking needs credibility,” said Clara Jimenez Cruz, the chair of the EFCSN and a member of the IFCN advisory board.

Observers say there is nothing new about political parties or governments trying to wade into fact-checking, nor is it limited to authoritarian countries, with examples in recent years also seen in Greece, Croatia and Spain.

A Freedom House report in October cited instances of independent fact-checking and disinformation researchers coming under pressure in Egypt, India, South Korea and the United States over the past 12 months alone.

‘Two realities’

Russia’s ambition to create an international network of like-minded fact-checking organisations is “a niche project” for now, said Ilya Yablokov, a lecturer in digital journalism and disinformation at the University of Sheffield.

But it fits with wider efforts to spread the Kremlin’s narrative abroad, he said.

“The main aim is the manipulation of information as a way to keep control of public opinion in a highly divisive environment,” he told AFP.

Much like the Russia-linked “Doppelganger” websites that have mimicked reliable media to disseminate pro-Kremlin talking points, propagandists are essentially trying to create “a parallel world”, he added.

“Basically they say ‘in our reality this is a fact’, and in your reality it’s fiction,” Yablokov said.

Although fact-checks are sometimes criticised for not reaching the right audiences, the EFCSN’s Jimenez Cruz said they remained one of several useful strategies in the fight against online falsehoods.

“We see the disinformation system in action every day but not everyone has been taken in by it,” she said.

Readers trying to navigate the increasingly crowded fact-checking world should look for fact-checks where the evidence is laid out step by step, using publicly available information and data, she added.

“You should be able to redo the investigation yourself,” she said. — AFP