Five Takeaways From the 2023 Africa Facts Summit
More than 200 fact-checkers from all over Africa convened in Mauritius to showcase the latest trends, research, and practical approaches to countering the spread of false information.
This year, the Africa Facts Network hosted its annual summit in Port Louis, Mauritius. Fact-checkers from all over the continent convened for the two-day event to share their work on artificial intelligence, elections, collaboration, and new media initiatives. Our very own Ann Ngengere was at the summit to talk about climate misinformation, and why fact-checkers must prioritise it on their agenda. She shares insights from discussions during the event.
Takeaway #1: AI should not be used to do automatic fact-checking because that would just be a very, very bad idea.
In a keynote address, Full Fact’s Andy Dudfield discussed what artificial intelligence means for fact-checkers. While AI can help fact-checkers automate certain aspects of their work, it should not replace their work entirely.
“AI is very powerful. But it’s not sophisticated enough at this stage, to be able to do the nuance, the complexity of fact-checking, the thing we all know and understand about the context, the caveats, the things that need to be applied. But what it can do is to help with some of the questions that we all face. We all want to write more and more content. And so AI is really good with these things because it can start to sort information and patterns, and it can start to bring greater context to the information that we’re producing.”
Full Fact uses an AI model that helps identify the most important things to fact-check each day. It monitors huge amounts of information, social media, newspapers, radio and television content, and then sifts through all of that to identify when people are making claims. When claims are identified, they are then ranked for the fact-checking team to review.
“It’s not a perfect science, but it does save huge amounts of time and effort when you can ask an AI model to say where should I place my time and effort today.”
AI can automate some fact-checking tasks, but fact-checkers remain essential in the fact-checking process to maintain quality and accuracy.
Takeaway #2: It’s time to think like the villains – the anatomy of an effective disinformation campaign
So, what makes disinformation campaigns successful? Lee Mwiti shared some insights on what he has seen as Chief Editor at Africa Check.
They are targeted at specific groups of people
They use credible-looking sources, such as fake news websites or social media accounts that impersonate real people or organisations.
They are emotionally charged and often try to evoke strong emotions, such as fear, anger, or hatred.
They are persistent, often repeating the same message in order to make it more believable.
They can be difficult to debunk
Such campaigns lead to low trust in government and apathy towards public initiatives like elections and vaccinations.
How can we counter these campaigns, knowing what we know now?
Target specific demographics or communities
Create engaging content like infographics, interactive quizzes, gamification and simulation.
Partner to amplify – social network effect where connections between people on social platforms boost the process of information dissemination and amplify the influence of that information.
Use humour and share content in local languages.
Use technology like AI for surveillance or to generate content.
Takeaway #3: The Kernel of Trust - Not accurate but not fundamentally untrue
What should we focus on? Why do we want to focus on it? Why should our readers focus on it? These are 3 fundamental questions every fact-checking editor should answer when choosing the claims to check.
In this session, Peter Cunliffe-Jones, founder of Africa Check explained the findings of a three-year study of the types of misinformation and their effects.
“One of the things that is problematic in fact-checking is we keep catching people on a technical inaccuracy with information that is pretty close to reality and doesn’t have the potential to cause harm. We’re nitpicking and saying that it is false.”
How do you choose the claims you’re going to check? Some questions you can ask yourself:
Is it a fact or an opinion
Are we being biased- focusing on a particular organisation or speaker
Is it a matter of public interest?
Most importantly- does it matter?
Fact-checkers, platforms, and regulators make choices about what claims to check, what content to take down, and how to respond to false information in a way that protects the right to free speech. When you look at the qualities of misinformation, does it have the potential to cause an effect or contribute to specific harms?
Takeaway #4: Why climate change misinformation cannot go unchallenged by fact-checkers
Climate change is an enduring, multi-dimensional crisis with far-reaching consequences, and accurate information is essential for the public to make informed decisions.
A lack of understanding of climate change can have dangerous consequences. I highlighted how poor knowledge about the impact of climate change on public health led to an attack on healthcare workers in Malawi earlier this year, as people could not connect the dots on how tropical storms had led to the worst cholera outbreak the country had ever experienced.
If people don’t understand the impacts of climate change, they may not fully grasp its magnitude on issues like health.
So, why do fact-checkers need to be at the frontline in responding to climate misinformation:
We are really good at finding information and breaking it down.
We know how to report the facts to a skeptical audience in a way that isn’t as emotive as the misinformation itself.
We have experience taking an abstract concept and creating accessible journalism.
We have been doing this for a long time for other issues that impact our audiences such as health and election.
Takeaway #5: Combatting dis- and misinformation through education and media literacy
Countering false information through education and media literacy has become crucial in today's information age.
Dr Arwa Kooli from Tunisia shared her experience working on a podcast to debunk climate-related misinformation in Tunisia.
“Climate change is a hot topic in our lives, but was not a priority in the media in Tunisia for a long time. We are now living it- temperatures are now going as high as 50 degrees Celsius and it is affecting agriculture and health. People are not informed about climate issues in Tunisia, which is why we started this initiative.”
Podcasts were the preferred format to reach younger populations and were complemented with other formats.
“We would publish a quiz as a sort of teaser before the podcast, and then we would publish summary cards after the podcast with the most important thing to take away from the podcast. We tried to make it close to people and make it human, not just explaining very technically why the temperature is rising.”
The two themes that struck me from the conference- the power of media literacy, and collaboration.
The role of media literacy cannot be overemphasised. Whether we’re talking about the impact of AI in spreading false information, election misinformation, health misinformation, or climate misinformation, literacy is the foundation of fact-checking, as it equips people with the skills to critically evaluate information and sources at their point of information consumption.
Collaboration is essential because it harnesses the collective expertise and resources needed to conduct thorough and credible fact-checks, as well as amplify them to reach a wider audience.
In conclusion, promoting media literacy and collaborating amongst ourselves empowers us to play a crucial role in countering harmful misinformation and promoting truth and accuracy in public discourse.
Fathm works with fact checkers around the world to design collaborations and help them reach new audiences in new ways. If you’d like to talk to us about how we can help your fact checking team, get in touch.