Qualification actors
Table of contents
Criterion: False or misleading
In the EU
EUvsDisinfo
By whom?
EU versus Disinformation is a campaign of the European External Action Service (EEAS) East Stratcom Task Force launched in March 2015.
What?
The campaign is supported by a website as well as several social media accounts ( Twitter and Facebook ). EUvsDisinfo focuses on “pro-Kremlin” disinformation campaigns, more precisely “on key messages carried in the media, which have been identified as providing a partial, distorted or false view or interpretation and spreading key pro-Kremlin messaging”. News are selected based on two criteria: 1) factual falsehood 2) origin and alinement with “identified pro-Kremlin disinformation messaging”.
Their fact-checking articles are produced, published and shared almost daily and are accessible to all. On the website can be found fact-check and debunk articles, then compiled on a large database of over 5 000 disinformation cases in 18 different languages. Every week since November 2015 is published a Disinformation Review which comprehends said articles as well as news, analyses, studies and reports.
What for?
The aim of the campaign is to “better forecast, address and respond to pro-Kremlin disinformation”.
For whom?
The weekly Disinformation Review and fact-check articles are public and available to all. Moreover, the campaign team “[briefs] and [trains] EU institutions, Member State governments, journalists and researchers”. Their articles and analyses are “regularly quoted and used by politicians, governments, state agencies, researchers, think tanks and journalists across Europe and beyond”.
FactCheckEU
By whom?
FactCheck EU was built on an initiative of International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) members by the French newspaper Libération and the digital design company Datagif.
On the basis of cooperation, it gathers contributions from nineteen European media outlets (such as Le Monde, Newtral, Pagella Politica, Lead Stories and Faktograf) from thirteen countries in the European Union (including France, Germany, Greece, Northern Ireland - and Ireland - Croatia, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Denmark and Sweden).
What?
FactCheck EU offers a website with fact-check articles, investigation pieces, and a Q&A.
It has a direct public interface for questions, to better grasp the needs of the public. Questions answered include topics such as the funding for FactCheck EU, the creation of the website, etc. Indeed, founders explicitely seek to build trust and credibility on the basis of transparency.
The articles are published in theme-oriented categories (European elections, refugee “crisis”…) and are all translated at least in English. They are translated in other languages when deemed relevant; usually the most relevant languages other than English are Spanish and German.
This choice of translation is made based on criteria such as the level of interest of the partners, the degree of literacy in English in the country of publication and the relevance at the EU level. Also, incendiary or hate-speech related questions and articles are judged less relevant for translation by the creators of FactCheck EU.
What for?
Publishing fact-checks and offering direct answers to the questions of its audience helps FactCheck EU to raise awareness within the civil society (media literacy) as well as providing a reliable, open platform for fact-checkers and media outlets on which to share their information, thereby reaching people throughout the EU and not merely nationally.
For whom?
FactCheck EU’s website is open to all. Partnerships are conducted with European-based fact-checking media outlets.
Additional information
FactCheck EU is partially financed by the Google News Initiative, the Open Society Initiative for Europe (OSIE) and the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). The platform was built thanks to a fact-checking innovation grant of the Poynter Institute.
Debunk.eu
Debunk is a Lithuanian-born initiative that aims to “unite the media, the society and the state to fight against disinformation”.
In Lithuanian: Demaskuok.
By whom?
Debunk.eu (demaskuok in Lithuanian) is a Lithuania-born initiative led by the main media outlets in Lithuania and composed of journalists, information technology (IT) experts, strategic communcation professionals and volunteers.
What?
The initiative unites “the seven largest media outlets in Lithuania (online, TV, radio) with 90% of national audience coverage”, “the three StratCom units of the Lithuanian MoD, MFA and armed forces”, researchers, state representatives and volunteers (also known as “elves”) including experts “in foreign, security, cyber, IT, environmental, economic and other affairs”.
It offers a platform for these actors to collaborate in the fight against disinformation in real time. It also has an analytic tool driven by several articifial intelligences (AIs) that “spots and identifies disinformation within 2 minutes from real time”.
What for?
The goal of the initiative is to raise awareness in the civil society as well as offering training to the EU and media organizations in order to “make society more resilient to orchestrated disinformation campaigns”, especially in the context of the upcoming European elections.
For whom?
Debunk.eu is open to various types of actors, including within the civil society, that are interested in actively fighting disinformation. It is still open to partnerships “to make the platform operational cross-language, cross-country”.
Additional information
Debunk was funded by the DELFI Group (the biggest online media company in the Baltic States) and the Google Digital News Initiative.
In France
Les Décodeurs
Les Décodeurs is a team of journalists from Le Monde who fact-chek, explain and give context to current news in almost-real time. They rank the news they check from “true” to “false” on a scale that also comprehends “rather true”, “questionable”, “exaggerated” or “simplistic”. They developed a tool, Decodex, which works as an interface for readers. The user just has to type in the address or the name of a website or a page to know whether the source (i.e. the diffuser of the news) is deemed reliable or not. It also works as a plug-in. Decodex also offers information in a media literacy effort. For instance, one can find on their webpage open questions such as “What is information?” or “How to check that a rumour spreading on social networks is true?” and their detailed answers.
AFP Factuel
This website of the French Press Agency simply provides fact-checks of articles and current news. It is open to everyone.
Vrai ou Fake
This is a factchecking and debunking platform for all of the French broadcasting audience. It gathers content produced by various media such as Arte, France Médias Monde, France Télévisions, Radio France and TV5 Monde.
In Ukraine
StopFake
Stop Fake is a fact-checking website focusing on fake informations regarding Ukraine.
It was launched in 2014, around the time of the annexation of Crimea, by the Kyiv Mohyla Journalism School and the “Digital Future of Journalism” project of the Kyiv Mohyla Academy.
Managed mostly by journalists and IT people, the website fact-checks disinformation and propaganda about events in Ukraine, but also more widely provides analyses on content they consider to be “Kremlin propaganda”, in the shape of video digests, radio podcasts and articles.
The content on StopFake is fully or partially translated in 11 languages: Russian, Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Polish, Romanian and Spanish.
In Belgium
Hoax-Net.be
Community-based fact-checking.
