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By Enock Nyariki (mailto:[email protected]?subject=&body=)

In this edition
* Inside GlobalFact 12: tough talk, new ideas, and fact-checking awards
* Africa’s fact-checkers head to Dakar
* Sharpen your research skills in PolitiFact’s latest webinar
* New transcription tool free for fact-checkers
* Pro-Russia network targets Balkans — and other key disinfo trends

GlobalFact conference participants in Rio de Janeiro on June 26, 2025. (Photo: Andressa Guerra/ Poynter)

When journalists began arriving at Fundação Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro for the International Fact-Checking Network’s GlobalFact conference late last month, the gathering felt noticeably different. Capacity this year was capped at about 350 seats because of venue limits, down from roughly 500 in previous editions. The summit remains the largest annual meeting of the world’s fact-checkers.

For months, the global fact-checking community had been navigating significant challenges. Funding cuts have squeezed budgets. Meta ended its third-party fact-checking program in the United States. International support for independent journalism is increasingly uncertain. Journalists committed to independent, fact-based reporting have increasingly become targets of coordinated harassment and political pressure.

Still, fact-checkers from more than 80 countries made the trip. A total of 444 professionals registered for the in-person and virtual experience, and every seat in the hall was occupied. Those unable to travel streamed the sessions online. Brazil was the most represented country, with 107 participants, followed by the United States (52) and India (28).

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes, one of the keynote speakers, opened the conference bluntly: “Self-regulation has proven a failure.”

He emphasized, "What is illegal offline is illegal online," calling for greater platform accountability.

Joining him on the panel, Superior Electoral Court President Cármen Lúcia compared online regulations to traffic laws, explaining, “Your freedom does not mean to be free to go the wrong way and crash into another car.”

Brazil’s Attorney General Jorge Messias agreed, saying, “There is no point in talking about self-regulation … Big Tech companies can’t even follow their own terms of use.” He added, “A hammer in the hand of a bricklayer can build good things, but in the hand of a killer can kill a person.” GlobalFact reporter Maria Ramirez Uribe covered the first day’s session in detail.Read her story here ([link removed]) .

In opening remarks before the keynote address, International Fact-Checking Network Director Angie Drobnic Holan emphasized that “freedom of expression is sacred to fact checkers,” and that despite challenges facing the community, “the truth is still worth fighting for.” (Read Holan’s remarks here ([link removed]) .)

The day before the conference opened on June 25, Latin American fact-checkers met at the same venue for their annual LatamChequea network summit. In a joint statement ([link removed]) , they urged funders, platforms, and governments to act decisively, warning: “Without verification, lies win.” The message expressed alarm over the end of U.S. international media support and Meta’s pullback from fact-checking partnerships.

On the second day of GlobalFact, three of Latin America’s most influential journalism leaders – Patrícia Campos Mello, Laura Zommer, and Jaime Abello – offered a message of resilience and renewal. They urged fact-checkers to innovate, collaborate, and stay rooted in ethical, public-interest journalism.

Patrícia Campos Mello, Laura Zommer, and Jaime Abello. (Photo: Andressa Guerra/ Poynter)

Zommer, known for building fact-checking networks across Latin America, called for radical transparency: “We should essentially undress ourselves, open our process and be explicit about it.”

Abello, who leads the Gabo Foundation, reminded the audience that journalism’s future depends on honoring its social contract: “The only present and future is to fulfill the promise we have made to society to work ethically and independently.”

Fact-Checking awards

The second day featured the presentation of the Global Fact-Checking Awards. (For the record, I coordinated expert reviews by independent judges and announced the winners during the ceremony.)

AFP won the first-ever Gold Standard Award for its investigation into disinformation networks in the South China Sea.

IFCN Director Angie Drobnic Holan presents the Gold Standard Award to the AFP team at GlobalFact 12. (Photo: Andressa Guerra/ Poynter)

Brazil’s Aos Fatos won the Impact Award for live fact-checking São Paulo’s mayoral debates. Tempo won the Creative Format Award for a game that teaches people how to spot phishing scams. (The Indonesian newsroom also won the award two years ago.) Factchequeado was recognized with the Collaboration Award for its partnership across U.S. Spanish-language media.

Bill Adair, Laura Zommer, and Peter Cunliffe-Jones received outstanding service awards for their significant contributions to the field of fact-checking.

Read the full awards coverage by Uribe here ([link removed]) .

The summit concluded its third day with topical networking sessions and private regional meetings, where fact-checkers discussed specific challenges and strategies relevant to their areas.

At the end of the event, Holan thanked attendees and sponsors, and reflected on the resilience the community had shown in a difficult year. She said she was proud of the conference’s success in Rio.

She revealed that GlobalFact 2026 returns to Europe next year, with the exact location to be announced by September.

The IFCN is sharing the full GlobalFact photo gallery ([link removed]) for a limited time with Factually readers. Take a look. (Photo credit: Poynter/Andressa Guerra)

Africa Facts Summit heads to Senegal

African fact-checkers from more than 50 organizations will meet in Dakar this October for the fourth Africa Facts Summit, the continent’s premier annual gathering on information integrity.

It will be the summit’s first stop in French-speaking West Africa, following earlier editions in Ghana, Mauritius and Kenya. The event is organized by South Africa–based IFCN signatory Africa Check, with its Francophone team in Senegal serving as this year’s host.

Set for October 1–2, the two-day event will bring together fact-checkers, journalists and experts to share practical solutions to misinformation across the continent. The program includes panels, workshops and collaborative sessions, and will conclude with top fact-checkers receiving awards for outstanding work.

“This is a strategic moment for the network – and we hope to see many of you in Dakar,” said Hlalani Gumpo, Africa Check’s head of outreach and the summit organizer, during a private meeting with global fact-checkers in Rio.

She invited anyone interested in attending or supporting the summit to email her at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) . Read the full press release ([link removed]) .

Transcription service from Aos Fatos now available for fact-checkers

Brazil-based Aos Fatos is offering its AI-powered transcription tool,Escriba ([link removed]) , free for one year to all IFCN signatories. The tool converts audio and video into searchable text in multiple languages. Bruno Fávero, director of innovation at Aos Fatos, said the offer aims to support collaboration among fact-checkers facing shared challenges.

ON OUR RADAR
* A new report ([link removed]) exposes a Russian-backed network spreading disinformation across the Balkans. Hibrid.info researcher Festim Rizanaj traced more than 200 websites in the so-called Pravda network, many linked to Kremlin-connected firm TigerWeb. These sites impersonate real news outlets and repost Russian state media and Telegram content to flood the region with anti-Western narratives. One Albanian-language domain alone pushed over 2,600 stories in a year. While the campaign has seen little traction in Albania, it has gained ground in Serbia and neighboring countries.
* Factnameh hasdocumented a coordinated disinformation campaign ([link removed]) by Iran’s state and semi-state media during its recent conflict with Israel. The analysis shows how government-backed outlets, aided by bots, foreign actors and AI-generated content, pushed false narratives — ranging from a fabricated “Le Monde” leak to claims of downed Israeli F-35s. The patterns suggest centralized control, with stories released across multiple platforms at once, aiming to flood the information space and distort public perception.
* The Guardianreports that X is letting AI draft Community Notes under misleading posts ([link removed]) — a shift from human-written corrections. The platform says notes will appear only if users with different views find them helpful. Critics warn this opens the door to unchecked falsehoods. A former UK minister called it “leaving it to bots to edit the news,” while Full Fact’s head of AI, Andy Dudfield, said the move risks losing the human judgment fact-checking depends on. Researchers found that ahead of the last U.S. election, accurate notes were missing from three-quarters of misleading posts.
* Logically, once Britain’s largest fact-checking company, has entered administration,The Times reports ([link removed]) . The company lost major social media contracts after its IFCN certification was not renewed, partly due to a fact-checking deal with a state government in India. It had built both editorial and AI tools to counter disinformation and once operated with 200 staff across three countries. Its key assets have now been acquired by a new company, Kreatur, which will retain more than 40 roles.

Have ideas or suggestions for the next issue of Factually? Email us at [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]?subject=&body=) .

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