Correct fake news on Fact-Checking Day

We need everyone to help us denounce fakery.

Journalists, educators and people who simply like to be right will mark annual International Fact-Checking Day today.

There will be no cake.

The original idea for a special day to recognize the work of fact-checking came out of a gathering of fact-checkers and researchers at the London School of Economics in June 2014 — in political years, a long time ago.

The idea was a bit tongue-in-cheek, a light-hearted way to call attention to the journalist’s role in holding politicians and government leaders accountable. We made plans for classroom quizzes, bar trivia nights, maybe even our own Google Doodle.

In 2018, as it turns out, International Fact-Checking Day will not be a day for celebration. The focus now must be on educating people about the dangers of living in a world where facts are seen by some as optional or malleable; fakery is a viable way to make a living or even to support an entire Macedonian town; and the delivery systems for falsehoods can be more successful than those delivering the opposite.

The informal group of a few dozen fact-checking professionals gathered in a stuffy London classroom four years ago has grown into the International Fact-Checking Network based at the Poynter Institute in Florida. And 787 people have applied to attend the 200person Global Fact-Checking Summit in Rome this summer.

Compared to the rest of the world, the growth of fact-checking efforts in the U.S. slowed down this past year, according to a report from Duke University’s Reporters’ Lab. That isn’t good news in a country where millions of people get information from three major platforms that are beset by fake news, misinformation and uninformed opinion disguised as fact — and where the leaders of Google, Twitter and Facebook have ranged from lukewarm to intransigent in addressing their roles in the dissemination of bad information.

Facebook has trumpeted its efforts to clean up fake news on its platform, but the fact-checkers hired to do the work soon realized it was faltering. Google continues to serve up fake news ads, even on fact-checking web sites, and has abandoned a search feature that attached a fact-check to some stories after conservative sites complained they were unfairly targeted. And it’s nonsensical to count on Twitter users to “correct the record,” as Nick Pickles of Twitter has said we should.

But there are quite literally not enough journalists in the world to combat the misinformation spreading like sci-fi slime throughout Twitter and all of social media. Look at the employment picture for journalists, whose core function is factual reporting. Just in the last six months, hundreds have been laid off and had their positions eliminated. The Bureau of Labor Statistics’ 10-year estimate shows a decline of 4,500 journalism jobs by 2026.

The recalcitrance and outright refusal for platforms to take responsibility for the growing infocalypse leaves us in a social media world that at times can be disgustingly inhumane and a threat to human rights. There are, however, some glimmers of good news.

First is simply the recognition of the misinformation problem. Libraries and other organizations are stepping in to bridge the news literacy education gap. Around the world, 137 organizations staffed by technologists, researchers and journalists are now doing debunking and accountability work, according to Duke University’s Reporters’ Lab. Many charitable foundations and media organizations are helping to support them.

Clearly, these efforts are only the beginning. And they depend on everyone to step up. Take a few minutes today to refute even one misinformed story on Facebook, or report one fake Twitter account or one manipulated photo on Instagram. Think of the impact — and the message — if even a small percentage of the millions of people who use social media would make just one effort to support facts and denounce fakery.

Then, we can all have some cake.