For the first time in the history of human warfare, the war in Ukraine is taking place under the watchful eye of an organized international community of fact-checkers, whose main mission this time is for the truth not to be the first victim the moment the bullets start flying.

This year, too, the Global Fact-Checking Community, gathered within the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), which already consists of organizations from over 100 countries around the world, celebrates April 2 – International Fact-Checking Day.

But unlike all previous years, this time the celebration takes place in the shadow of the war in Ukraine, the largest military conflict on European soil since World War II, which in its six-week duration claimed thousands of lives on both sides and displaced over 4 million people in Ukraine.

This war is said to be the most covered in the media so far, in which, of course, the rise of social networks plays a major role, but on the other hand, it is also being waged under the watchful eye of a widespread network of fact-checkers from Ukraine, from Europe and around the world.

Almost in parallel with the start of hostilities, fact-checkers organized and, through the #UkraineFacts initiative, made their research and analysis available in one place, enabling the international public to be quickly and easily informed of the disinformation circulating in the media, on social networks, trying, at least to some extent, to dilute the “fog of war” that always accumulates as soon as weapons take precedence over politics in relations between states.

This war is said to be the most covered in the media so far, in which, of course, the rise of social networks plays a major role, but on the other hand, it is also being waged under the watchful eye of a widespread network of fact-checkers from Ukraine. , from the European continent and around the world.

Almost in parallel with the start of hostilities, fact-checkers organized and, through the #UkraineFacts initiative, made their research and analysis available in one place, enabling the international public to be quickly and easily informed of the misinformation circulating in the media. on social networks, trying, at least to some extent, to dilute the “fog of war” that always accumulates as soon as weapons take precedence over politics in relations between states.

In creating #UkraineFacts, fact-checkers used the experience gained at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, when the #CoronaVirusFactsAlliance initiative was launched, informing the international community of a number of disinformation, all in order to protect their public health, especially in the first weeks and months of the pandemic, when disinformation spread fear, panic, insecurity, anger, but also dangerous lies, which sometimes cost lives.

Truthmeter, as a member of IFCN, together with two other media outlets published by the Metamorphosis FoundationMeta.mk News Agency and Portalb (which recently celebrated it’s 10 year birthday), fully participates in all these international initiatives, persistently working to promote the facts, debunking disinformation, exposing conspiracy theories and exposing fraud in both the media and social networks. In the last six weeks since the start of the war in Ukraine, Truthmeter has already published almost 50 debunkings of various disinformation related to the armed conflict.

 

Over the next week, Metamorphosis Foundation fact-checkers on social media, through their personal videos, will mark April 2, but globally you can join the IFCN Internet panels, which will also be held next week and which will discuss a variety of topics of interest to fact-checkers. You can follow the debate by registering here.

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