CivilNet became the first Armenian news organization Tuesday to join Meta’s third-party fact-checking program in Armenia. CivilNet, whose fact-checking department has been certified by the non-partisan International Fact-Checking Network, will employ native Armenian language fact-checkers to review and rate the accuracy of content in Armenia.
“CivilNet established a dedicated fact-checking unit in December 2021 to advance fact-checking journalism in Armenia. Our mission is to combat fake news, misinformation, and manipulation while educating the public about these issues. We are glad to start our fact-checking work on Facebook and Instagram, which remain key social media platforms in Armenia,” said Apo Boghigian, director of CivilNet.
As part of Meta’s continuous fight against misinformation, the company partners with independent, third-party fact-checkers around the world, who review and rate the accuracy of content. When a fact checker rates a piece of content as false, the company shows it lower in the feed, significantly reducing its distribution. This stops misinformation from spreading and reduces the number of people who see it. Pages, groups, and accounts that repeatedly share false news will also see their distribution reduced and their ability to monetize and advertise removed. When a post has been marked as false, Meta warns people who see the post, or try to share the post, that it has been marked as false. Fact-checkers do not remove content, accounts, or pages from Facebook or Instagram.
“We’re happy to have CivilNet as our first local third-party fact-checking partner in Armenia. This partnership is an important milestone in fighting false news and helping Armenian-speaking users use our platforms safely,” said Uliana Zinina, head of public policy for Armenia at Meta.
This program is in line with the Meta family of apps’ three-part framework to improve the quality and authenticity of content in the feed, including by removing accounts and content that violate its community standards or ad policies, reducing the distribution of false news and inauthentic content like clickbait, and informing users by giving them more context on the posts they see.
CivilNet will begin fact-checking on Facebook and Instagram in July. Meta already works with nearly 100 fact-checking partners in more than 60 languages globally.
“We are constantly working on ways to help stop the spread of misinformation on our platform and understand the value of partnering with local experts to do so. We are pleased to start working with CivilNet and welcome them to our global program,” said James Morgan, strategic partner development manager for news integrity at Meta․
