LatamChequea, the Latin American network of fact-checkers, attended the latest Global Fact, the annual international conference, which this year took place in Vilnius, Lithuania.
The event was marked by advances in artificial intelligence and discussions not only on how to leverage this technology but also on regulation and the role of fact-checkers in these global discussions. Journalistic, educational, and technological examples were also shared so that fact-checkers from different regions could replicate projects and learn from one another. Specifically this year, examples and various techniques of foreign information manipulation and interference (FIMI) were also discussed—an issue that is very present in the host country and is becoming increasingly relevant in Latin America.
Among the region’s representatives at the event were five members of the LatamChequea Council —Alejandra Gutiérrez Valdizán (Agencia Ocote from Guatemala), Andrés Cañizález (Cotejo from Venezuela), Daniel Bramatti (Estadão Verifica from Brazil), Daniela Mendoza (Verificado from Mexico), and Olivia Sohr (Chequeado from Argentina)— as well as five members from various media outlets in the network who received scholarships from LatamChequea to attend the event —Adrián González (Cazadores de Fake News from Venezuela), Bernardo Costa (Estadão Verifica from Brazil), Laura Zommer (Factchequeado from the United States), Marcela Duarte (Aos Fatos from Brazil), and Marcelo Alejandro Blanco Gutierrez (Bolivia Verifica from Bolivia). This was made possible by the project “Promoting Reliable Information and Combating Disinformation in Latin America,” coordinated regionally by Chequeado and funded by the European Union.
The network participated in various sessions: Olivia Sohr presented the reports on disinformation trends in the region that LatamChequea produces quarterly during a talk on how to identify trends beyond individual posts; Laura Zommer led discussions on informational media literacy (AMI) and how to capture the public’s attention with short videos; Marcela Duarte led a session to discuss artificial intelligence, and Bernardo Costa presented a prebunking project carried out with AI support.
In addition, Franco Piccato (Chequeado, Argentina) spoke on a panel about the role of AI as an ally for fact-checkers, Matías Di Santi (Chequeado, Argentina) presented the case of Argentina’s ‘Official Response Office’, which allegedly fact-checks media outlets and journalists, and Pedro Prata (Estadão Verifica, Brazil) spoke on a panel about climate disinformation. At the end of the event, all Latin American participants took part in a regional meeting focusing on how to foster greater intra-regional collaboration and how to incorporate the regional perspective into global discussions.
Several LatamChequea members were nominated for this year’s Global Fact-Checking Awards, and we had one winner: EFE Verifica from Spain won in the “Creative Formats” category with its special report “Fake News, Real Victims.”
Additionally, in the “Collaboration” category, an investigation by Los Desinformantes—coordinated by LatamChequea and carried out by Estadão Verifica (Brazil), La Diaria Verifica (Uruguay), and Fast Check CL (Chile). The investigation exposed social media accounts and politicians who distort the events of the recent military dictatorships in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay, using language targeted at young people to reach new audiences and causing victims of the military regimes to relive their trauma. Brazil’s Estadão Verifica was also nominated in the “Impact” category, as a regional investigation in which it participated uncovered a network profiting from misinformation about vaccines, prompting reactions from scientific organizations, federal prosecutors, and government health authorities to the findings.
Also nominated were Maldita from Spain in the “Collaboration” category for an investigation into scams related to public transportation, and Newtral from Spain in the “Creative Formats” category for an investigation into a false story about a woman who allegedly traveled to Syria to join militias.
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