False news tends to grow and spread widely on digital platforms, so the landscape of social media can often be a highly contested battlefield for fact-checkers. For this reason, the International Fact-Checking Network launched two new accounts on Instagram and Youtube.
Both channels are already up and running, available for anyone interested in following discussions regarding the fight against misinformation.
Throughout this week, the platforms, as well as IFCN’s Twitter account, will be geared toward coverage of Global Fact 6. The IFCN’s annual fact-checking summit begins Tuesday in Cape Town, South Africa, bringing together more than 250 participants from all over the world. For four days, IFCN’s staff will be busy posting articles, photos and videos from the conference’s more than 40 sessions. Our goal is to spread the word about the most important conversations and conclusions that emerge from South Africa.
Through IFCN’s Instagram and Twitter accounts, followers can also cast votes and help decide who should win this year’s Global Fact Award. There are three categories and 12 finalists.
IFCN’s Youtube channel will keep videos from all sessions held in the University of Cape Town New Lecture Theatre, the main auditorium for Global Fact 6. Some of these panels and featured talks will also be transmitted live by live.globalfact6.com and Poynter.org. The goal is to make it easy for those who couldn’t be in South Africa to join the discussions and engage in the fight against false news. The hashtag will be #GlobalFact6.
Once the biggest fact-checking event of the year is over, the new IFCN Instagram account and the Youtube channel will promote not only IFCN’s own content but also those coming from its more than 60 verified members. The idea is to give visibility to best practices, good fact-checks and the great effort journalists are making worldwide to fight false news.
For Baybars Orsek, the IFCN’s director, it is also a chance for the organization to be closer to society and hear what people have to say about the fact-checking community.
“Good interactions are expected in both channels, just like we usually see in our Twitter account,” he said.
In June, IFCN’s Twitter account had more than 13,000 followers and served as a hub for discussions related to fact-checking and misinformation.
