 | |
| Founded | 2009 |
|---|---|
| Founders | Michael Samuel and Will Moy |
| Type | charity |
| Registration no. | 1158683 [1] |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 51°30′19″N0°08′11″W / 51.505194°N 0.136471°W |
| Website | fullfact.org |
Full Fact is a British charity, based in London, which checks and corrects facts reported in the news as well as claims which circulate on social media.
Full Fact was founded in 2009 by businessman Michael Samuel, the charity's chair, and Will Moy, who served as director. It has 18 staff as of 2019 [update] . [2] Moy had been working as a researcher for Lord Low and noticed that lobbyists often provided inaccurate briefings to legislators, [3] while Samuel had been concerned about accuracy in public debate for some years. Moy and Samuel were introduced by Julia Neuberger and began working together.[ citation needed ]
Full Fact applied to the Charity Commission for charitable status in 2009 but was refused. An appeal to the commission's tribunal in 2011 was rejected on the grounds that the stated objective of "civic engagement" was too political. Charitable status was granted in 2014 after the wording was changed to "the advancement of public education". [4] [5]
In March 2017, the International Fact Checking Network certified Full Fact as a fact-checker. [6]
Moy resigned in April 2023, citing need for change at the top of the organization, joining the Campbell Collaboration as CEO that works on systematic reviews. [7] Chris Moris became the new CEO in September 2023. [8]
Full Fact initially rated material on a five-point scale, using a magnifying glass as a symbol instead of a star. It dropped this system as it felt such ratings were unreliable and did not help its reputation. [9]
The fact-checking process includes a three-stage review [10] and facts also may be reviewed by external academics. [10]
Full Fact has been sponsored to develop automated fact-checking tools by the Omidyar Network and Open Society Foundations. Live is one such tool which will immediately check statements against a database of verified facts. The other tool, called Trends, will track and display the spread of false information. [11]
Full Fact offers three-month secondments to statisticians working in the Government Statistical Service. Secondees have performed activities such as fact-checking Question Time and providing guidance on presenting statistics. Full Fact has also partnered with media organisations including the BBC, ITV, and Sky News to provide information about political campaigns including the Scottish and UK-EU referendums and the general elections of 2015 and 2017. It also provided evidence to the Leveson Inquiry and the BBC Trust's impartiality review. [12]
Full fact created a framework for so-called information incidents which is used by the Counter-Disinformation Policy Forum to assess information incidents. [13] The creation of this framework was supported by a grant by Facebook. [14] It deals with three classifications of data that should be responded to: Misinformation, Disinformation, and Malinformation. [14] The framework was produced with consultation with the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, International Fact-Checking Network, Google, Facebook and Twitter amongst others. [14] The framework defines 5 level of incident. [15]
In 2016, Full Fact checked claims made during the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum campaign. [17] In 2017, Full Fact worked with a similar organisation named First Draft to carry out fact-checking during the UK general election. [18]
On 11 January 2019, it was announced that Full Fact would be providing fact-checking services to the Facebook platform. [19]
In January 2022, Full Fact signed a letter of fact checkers calling for YouTube to stop algorithms from suggesting videos of creators deemed to be spreading misinformation or disinformation as well as to display contextual information on videos deemed to be spreading such information. [20]
In evidence submitted regarding the Online Safety Bill, Full Fact argued for widening the definition of harmful content to be suppressed to include content that is harmful to democracy and society, not just individuals. [21] They argued that suppressed content should specified by legislation for increased democratic oversight, arguing that there was de facto censorship-by-proxy by the Government through government officials contacting companies. [21] : 49
In 2023, Full Fact called for the removal of Conservative MP, Andrew Bridgen, from the party after the MP made claims that covid-19 vaccines were a gene therapy with various medical side effects. [22] [23]
Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic deceptions and media manipulation tactics to advance political, military, or commercial goals. Disinformation is implemented through attacks that "weaponize multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value judgements—to exploit and amplify culture wars and other identity-driven controversies."
Fact-checking is the process of verifying the factual accuracy of questioned reporting and statements. Fact-checking can be conducted before or after the text or content is published or otherwise disseminated. Internal fact-checking is such checking done in-house by the publisher to prevent inaccurate content from being published; when the text is analyzed by a third party, the process is called external fact-checking.
Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. Misinformation can exist without specific malicious intent; disinformation is distinct in that it is deliberately deceptive and propagated. Misinformation can include inaccurate, incomplete, misleading, or false information as well as selective or half-truths.
Meedan is a technology not-for-profit that builds software and programmatic initiatives to strengthen journalism, digital literacy, and accessibility of information online and off.
Africa Check is a non-profit fact checking organisation set up in 2012 to promote accuracy in public debate and the media in Africa. The organisation's goal is to raise the quality of information available to society across the continent. Africa Check is an independent organisation with offices in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, Dakar and London, producing reports in English and French testing claims made by public figures, institutions and the media against the best available evidence.
Fake news websites are websites on the Internet that deliberately publish fake news—hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation purporting to be real news—often using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect. Unlike news satire, fake news websites deliberately seek to be perceived as legitimate and taken at face value, often for financial or political gain. Such sites have promoted political falsehoods in India, Germany, Indonesia and the Philippines, Sweden, Mexico, Myanmar, and the United States. Many sites originate in, or are promoted by, Russia, or North Macedonia among others. Some media analysts have seen them as a threat to democracy. In 2016, the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a resolution warning that the Russian government was using "pseudo-news agencies" and Internet trolls as disinformation propaganda to weaken confidence in democratic values.
Fake news or information disorder is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue. Although false news has always been spread throughout history, the term fake news was first used in the 1890s when sensational reports in newspapers were common. Nevertheless, the term does not have a fixed definition and has been applied broadly to any type of false information presented as news. It has also been used by high-profile people to apply to any news unfavorable to them. Further, disinformation involves spreading false information with harmful intent and is sometimes generated and propagated by hostile foreign actors, particularly during elections. In some definitions, fake news includes satirical articles misinterpreted as genuine, and articles that employ sensationalist or clickbait headlines that are not supported in the text. Because of this diversity of types of false news, researchers are beginning to favour information disorder as a more neutral and informative term.
Occupy Democrats is an American left-wing media outlet built around a Facebook page and corresponding website. Established in 2012, it publishes hyperpartisan content, clickbait, and false information. Posts originating from the Occupy Democrats Facebook page are among the most widely shared political content on Facebook.
Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) is an American website founded in 2015 by Dave M. Van Zandt. It considers four main categories and multiple subcategories in assessing the "political bias" and "factual reporting" of media outlets, relying on a self-described "combination of objective measures and subjective analysis".
Fake news in India refers to fostering and spread of false information in the country which is spread through word of mouth, traditional media and more recently through digital forms of communication such as edited videos, websites, blogs, memes, unverified advertisements and social media propagated rumours. Fake news spread through social media in the country has become a serious problem, with the potential of it resulting in mob violence, as was the case where at least 20 people were killed in 2018 as a result of misinformation circulated on social media.
The StopFake website is a project of Ukrainian media NGO Media Reforms Center. It was founded in March 2014 by Ukrainian professors and students with the stated purpose of refuting Russian propaganda and fake news. It began as a Russian- and English-language fact-checking organization, and has grown to include a TV show broadcast on 30 local channels, a weekly radio show, and a strong social media following.
Fake news in the Philippines refers to the general and widespread misinformation or disinformation in the country by various actors. It has been problematic in the Philippines where social media and alike plays a key role in influencing topics and information ranging from politics, health, belief, religion, current events, aid, lifestyle, elections and others. Recently, it has evolved to be a rampant issue against the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines and the 2022 Philippine general election.
Disinformation attacks are strategic deception campaigns involving media manipulation and internet manipulation, to disseminate misleading information, aiming to confuse, paralyze, and polarize an audience. Disinformation can be considered an attack when it occurs as an adversarial narrative campaign that weaponizes multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value-laden judgements—to exploit and amplify identity-driven controversies. Disinformation attacks use media manipulation to target broadcast media like state-sponsored TV channels and radios. Due to the increasing use of internet manipulation on social media, they can be considered a cyber threat. Digital tools such as bots, algorithms, and AI technology, along with human agents including influencers, spread and amplify disinformation to micro-target populations on online platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Google, Facebook, and YouTube.
Wikipedia's volunteer editor community has the responsibility of fact-checking Wikipedia's content. Their aim is to curb the dissemination of misinformation and disinformation by the website.
Misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines consists of disinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic propagated by various sources.
The World Doctors Alliance is a pseudo-medical organization of anti-vaccine activists, COVID-19 denialists and conspiracy theorists which was established in May 2020 by Mohammad Iqbal Adil.
Logically is a British multinational technology startup company that specializes in analyzing and fighting disinformation. Logically was founded in 2017 by Lyric Jain and is based in Brighouse, England, with offices in London, Mysore, Bangalore, and Virginia.
This timeline includes entries on the spread of COVID-19 misinformation and conspiracy theories related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada. This includes investigations into the origin of COVID-19, and the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 which is caused by the virus SARS-CoV-2. Social media apps and platforms, including Facebook, TikTok, Telegram, and YouTube, have contributed to the spread of misinformation. The Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) reported that conspiracy theories related to COVID-19 began on "day one". CAHN reported on March 16, 2020, that far-right groups in Canada were taking advantage of the climate of anxiety and fear surrounding COVID, to recycle variations of conspiracies from the 1990s, that people had shared over shortwave radio. COVID-19 disinformation is intentional and seeks to create uncertainty and confusion. But most of the misinformation is shared online unintentionally by enthusiastic participants who are politically active.
