Collaborative project fights against misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic

Along with the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic, the world also had to deal with the spread of misinformation about the disease. In fact, the problem gain such a huge proportion that the World health Organization classified the spread of false information as an infodemic. To help combat this problem, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) launched the #CoronaVirusFacts / #DatosCoronaVirus Alliance.

According to the website, “The CoronaVirusFacts Alliance is the largest collaborative project ever launched in the fact-checking world”. The Alliance brings together more than 99 members, established fact-checkers that include newspapers, online publications, fact-checking organization, etc. The IFCN selected all the members, guaranteeing that they were “either verified signatories of the IFCN’s Code of Principles or organizations that have been supported by one of the IFCN’s members.“

The Alliance was created in January 2020, when the virus was still restricted to China but the spread of misinformation was already beginning. One year later, their public database has more than 9000 fact-checks, covering information that was spread in over 70 countries and in more than 40 languages. They’re fact-checking efforts can also be followed through a Twitter list, where the articles are shared using the hashtag #CoronaVirusFacts. The IFCN has also created WhatsApp chatbot, in Englisg, Spanish and Hindi, to give the public easy access to all the data available in their database.

More information: https://www.poynter.org/coronavirusfactsalliance/

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