ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (April 7, 2022) – The Poynter Institute’s International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) will partner with Meta to distribute $800,000 in grant support to verified fact-checking organizations working to combat false and misleading information on WhatsApp.
“More than 2 billion people around the world rely on WhatsApp to connect with friends and family, stay updated on world events and share information,” said Ferdi Özsoy, program manager at the IFCN. “With support from WhatsApp, the Spread the Facts Grant Program will give verified fact-checking organizations resources to deescalate the harm of viral misinformation and improve the quality of public debate.”
All applicants must be signatories of the IFCN’s Code of Principles. Fact-checking organizations and consortiums looking to establish a presence or increase fact-checking capacity on WhatsApp Business can receive $25,000. Verified signatories with existing operations on WhatsApp API can receive $50,000.
Eligible applicants must demonstrate the capacity to increase the distribution and promotion of fact-checks to reach new audiences; increase the scale, efficiency or workflow of fact-checking; deploy new solutions and tools to address misinformation; or facilitate fact-checking collaboration across newsrooms through technology.
Recipients will be selected by a six-member committee made up of experts and educators in journalism, mass communications and media studies from around the world.
Grantees will have the opportunity to share their work with the global fact-checking community in 2023 at Global Fact 10, the IFCN’s premier fact-checking summit that unites creators, consumers and champions of fact-based reporting from more than 60 different countries.
Applicants must submit their proposal by May 13, 2022. Grant recipients will be notified during Global Fact 9, June 22-25, 2022. Click here to learn more about the Spread the Facts Grant Program and apply. For more information, visit poynter.org/ifcn.
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The Poynter Institute for Media Studies is a global leader in journalism education and a strategy center that stands for uncompromising excellence in journalism, media, and 21st-century public discourse. Poynter faculty teach seminars and workshops at the Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, and at newsrooms, conferences, and organizations around the world. Its e-learning division, News University, offers the world’s largest online journalism curriculum, with hundreds of interactive courses and tens of thousands of registered international users. The Institute’s website produces 24-hour coverage about media, ethics, technology, and the business of news. Poynter is the home of the Craig Newmark Center for Ethics and Leadership, the Pulitzer Prize-winning PolitiFact, the International Fact-Checking Network and MediaWise, a digital information literacy project for young people, first-time voters, and senior citizens. The world’s top journalists and media innovators rely on Poynter to learn and teach new generations of reporters, storytellers, media inventors, designers, visual journalists, documentarians, and broadcasters. This work builds public awareness about journalism, media, the U.S. First Amendment, and discourse that serves democracy and the public good. Learn more at poynter.org.
