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AFP extends Facebook fact-checking collaboration to three more countries
AFP is expanding a fact-checking contract with Facebook to Canada, Indonesia and the Philippines in an extension of its existing collaboration in France, Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. The Agency will produce fact-checking articles that will be made freely available via blogs. Some of these will be moved on AFP's wires.
The blogs, in English, Spanish and Portuguese are based on the current French-language Factuel, a site dedicated to verifying and debunking false information spread online. AFP journalists fact check potentially false content and provide the necessary context where it is lacking. The contract includes the verification of images, an area in which AFP has particular expertise.
Under the agreement, AFP has full independence in choosing which content to verify. Links to its fact checks appear alongside original posts on Facebook.
Some of the fact checks posted on the blog are also moved on AFP’s text wire in a new format of stories with the attribute “FACTCHECK”.
The collaboration between Facebook and AFP is an expansion of a contract signed in 2017 between the social media platform and five French news organisations, including AFP.
The work carried out by the expanded fact-checking teams will benefit all of the Agency’s production - text, photo, video and graphics - as verification becomes increasingly important for news organisations.
The new contract comes in addition to numerous initiatives and partnerships set up by AFP in recent years:
- Editorial lead in CrossCheck, a collaborative journalism project launched by First Draft for the 2017 French presidential election;
- Recognition by the International Fact-Checking Network: AFP is one of the 53 media organisations signed up to the IFCN’s Code of Principles;
- A partnership with Reporters Without Borders (RSF) through its “Journalism Trust Initiative”, which is designed to combat disinformation;
Collaboration with Africa Check, a non-profit organisation which AFP helped to set up that has gained global recognition for its news verification efforts in Africa.
About AFP:
AFP is a global news agency delivering fast, accurate, in-depth coverage of the events shaping our world from conflicts to politics, economics, sports, entertainment and the latest breakthroughs in health, science and technology. With 2,400 staff spread across almost every country, AFP covers the world 24 hours a day in six languages. AFP delivers the news in video, text, photos, multimedia and graphics to a wide range of customers including newspapers and magazines, radio and TV channels, web sites and portals, mobile operators, corporate clients as well as public institutions.