Delegitimizing the Messenger: The Assault on Fact Checkers

In one of the most important elections in US history, intelligence researchers and fact-checkers whose work proved crucial to identifying disinformation during the 2020 US campaign were under attack. They faced a wave of lawsuits, citations from the House Judiciary Committee and online vitriol from right-wing actors driven by false characterizations of their work. Changes to key companies such as Meta and Xformerly known as Twitter, have reduced their ability to study the information space. As a result, US disinformation experts now have fewer resources, institutional support and access to platform data, all of which are needed to provide the same kind of analysis in 2024 that was possible in 2020.

This chilling effect on information research is not an aberration. In a recently released reportFreedom House has documented similar attacks around the globe that seek to delegitimize the work of independent researchers and fact-checkers, saying dire consequences for democracy in the digital age.

These attacks are most prevalent in authoritarian environments. Because fact checkers help hold purveyors of false and misleading information accountable, propagandists have cast doubt on the legitimacy of their work. During Egypt’s deeply flawed December 2023 presidential election, the local media authority launched an investigation into the independent fact-checking platform Saheeh Masr. The site’s “crime” was reporting that state-owned conglomerate United Media Services had issued guidelines preventing stories on a wide range of topics among its affiliates, including a ban on reporting cases where voters might boycott the vote or be pressured to choose a particular candidate.

Authoritarian governments and their supporters have also set up bogus fact-checking units to promote their own propaganda. In Russia, the “War on Fakes” Telegram channel, which is run by pro-government actors and rose to prominence following the regime’s brutal large-scale invasion of Ukraine, has been working diligently to “verify” fake demonstrative talking points of the Kremlin.

Democratic leaders have also tried to turn fact-checking into political fodder. In India, where the ruling party has harassed independent journalists, censored its critics and spread false and inflammatory narratives about religious minorities, the central government sought to set up a fact-checking unit to “correct” what it believed to be it is false information about government actions. Fortunately, the country’s courts stepped in to ban the creation of the fact-checking unit after journalists and civil society groups highlighted its potential for abuse.

Similar to attacks on independent researchers in the United States, South Korea’s ruling party has vilified the work of SNUFactCheck, a nonprofit organization that has collaborated with Seoul National University and major media outlets, ahead of legislative elections in April 2024. The allegations have prompted a major sponsor to withdraw funding from the nonprofit, and the center subsequently suspended its activities indefinitely. The attacks on SNUFactCheck were part of a larger campaign by the ruling party to intimidate independent media involved in critical reporting.

Elections serve as a flashpoint for false and misleading information. Coordinated disinformation and harassment campaigns can erode confidence in electoral processes and have a chilling effect on democratic engagement, particularly among women and marginalized communities who face a disproportionate the number of attacks. Independent research and vetting of the information space can help voters navigate fact and fiction and make informed decisions that best match their political preferences.

Fact checkers and disinformation researchers also play a crucial role in uncovering trends in influence operations, the foreign and domestic actors responsible, and the technology they use. For example, in the run-up to Taiwan’s January election, DoubleThink Lab identified a social media campaign that featured AI-generated avatars smearing former President Tsai Ing-wen. The researchers attributed the campaign with “very high confidence” to the Chinese Communist Party, providing crucial evidence of Beijing’s efforts to interfere in Taiwan’s election.

On a background of the decline of global freedom and increased attacks on human rights online, fact-checking remains an important piece of the puzzle for countering false and misleading information and its insidious effects. The intervention should be associated with a whole society approach to restore trust online led by democratic decision makers, technology companies and civil society.

Policymakers should enact regulations that provide vetted researchers with access to data from technology platforms. This is especially urgent because many social media firms have done the opposite, exacerbating the deteriorating environment for independent researchers. Meta substituted its CrowdTangle tool, which enabled real-time content analysis on Facebook and Instagram, with the Meta Content Library, a much more limited alternative. X has also cut off researchers’ ability to access platform data, banning almost all scraping from its site and blocking access to important platform data behind a remarkably expensive paywall.

Democracies should also seek to increase transparency about how the platforms work more broadly. Better insight into content moderation, algorithmic systems, and political ads is crucial to informing better regulation and technological changes that protect information integrity.

Ultimately, greater investment is needed from policymakers, technology companies, and philanthropies to expose influencer operations and improve people’s ability to consume information critically. Support for local civil society and grassroots media groups doing this work is particularly important to counter authoritarians’ control of information.

Modern democracy depends on widespread access to reliable and diverse sources of information. With the right support, independent researchers and fact-checkers can help restore trust in the online information space.