Fact-checkers on social networks: analysis of their presence and content distribution channels

Abstract

Fact-checking is a thriving journalistic discipline that, in recent years, has gained great prominence as a tool in combating disinformation. The effectiveness of the work carried out by these journalistic initiatives depends not only on the quality of their content, but also on their ability to reach large audiences through the same channels by which disinformation spreads. In this context, we consider it important to know to what extent fact-checkers use social networks and other types of digital channels in order to deliver their fact-checks to a wide audience, whether there are differences between the practices developed by these actors according to the type of organisation to which they belong and whether there is a distinguishing element in this regard for Ibero-American fact-checkers. This article focuses on analysing the presence on social networks and the use of content distribution tools by 104 fact-checkers from all over the world pertaining to the International Fact-Checking Network in 2020. The results show significant differences in terms of network presence based on the type of entity to which fact-checkers belong, the independent fact-checkers being the ones using a wider variety of distribution channels. It has also been confirmed that Ibero-American fact-checkers have a greater presence on social networks, use more digital tools and provide more channels to share their content than the rest of the international sample.

Corporate policies to protect against disinformation for young audiences: the case of TikTok

“…The central objective is to analyze the corporate policies that TikTok has implemented (mainly at the European level), the issues they aim to deal with, and how the social network has monitored and complied with said policies from 2020 to 2024, given that TikTok "is becoming a new home for fake news stories, manipulated media, and other types of misinformation" (Newman, 2022a(Newman, , 2022b. Unlike previous research that has focused primarily on analyzing the activity of verification agencies and fact-checkers (Ufarte Ruíz and Murcia Verdú, 2018;Alonso-López et al, 2021;Sidorenko-Bautista et al, 2021;Dafonte-Gómez et al, 2022;García-Marín and Salvat-Martinrey, 2022;Arrieta-Castillo and Rubio Jordán, 2023;Hidalgo Cobo and Puebla-Martínez, 2023) this study focuses on the platform's own corporate strategy.…”

Verification Agencies on TikTok: The Case of MediaWise and Politifact

“…Verification agencies use social media as a means to disseminate their findings. In their research, Dafonte-Gómez et al [46] conclude that all agencies use Twitter and that Facebook also plays a prominent role, with YouTube being the third most used platform. However, their study does not include TikTok, although there are 42 agencies in Europe and America with active accounts on this network [47].…”

Metodología para el análisis de contenido de agencias de verificación en TikTok

“…Por otra parte, las agencias de verificación hacen un uso extensivo de las redes sociales como herramienta de comunicación de las verificaciones que realizan. Alberto Dafonte-Gómez et al (2022) realizan una investigación y los resultados son claros: Twitter es utilizado por todas las agencias; Facebook también tiene mucho protagonismo y…”