Launching a $1M Grant Program to Support Fact-Checkers Amid COVID-19

Fact-checking projects from Australia, France, Indonesia, Canada, Jordan, Kenya, Taiwan and Ukraine have been selected in the final round of our Coronavirus grant program with the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).

The program will support eight projects that aim to fight COVID-19 misinformation in Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceania, and the Middle East. On April 2, we announced the first batch of the Coronavirus Fact-Checking Grants, with 13 projects.

The final round of recipients are:

• RMIT ABC Fact Check - Australia
• 20 minutes - France
• Liputan6 - Indonesia
• ASL 19 - Canada
• Fatabyyano - Jordan
• PesaCheck - Kenya
• Taiwan FactCheck Center - Taiwan
• VoxUkraine - Ukraine

Last month, we announced the launch of a new grant program in partnership with the International Fact-Checking Network to support fact-checkers in their work around COVID-19.

Thirteen fact-checking organizations around the world have been selected in the first round to receive grants to support their projects. This includes projects from Italy, Spain, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Greece, Turkey, Montenegro, Lithuania, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, India, Congo and the United States.

The recipients are:

• Ellinika Hoaxes – Greece
• 15min.lt – Lithuania
• Newtral – Spain
• La Silla Vacia – Colombia
• Animal Político / El Sabueso – Mexico
• Agência Lupa – Brazil
• PolitiFact – United States
• Doğruluk Payı – Turkey
• Raskrinkavanje.me – Montenegro
• Congo Check – Congo
• Newschecker.in – India
• Raskrinkavanje.ba – Bosnia & Herzegovina
• Pagella Politica – Italy

Additional grant recipients will continue to be announced through May 1.

As the impact of COVID-19 has spread around the world, our independent third-party fact-checking partners have been debunking hoaxes across dozens of countries and languages. This work is a key piece of our multi-pronged strategy to reduce the spread of misinformation on our platforms, and it has never been more important.

Today we’re announcing that we’ve partnered with Poynter's International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) to launch a $1M USD grant program to support fact-checkers in their work around COVID-19. In addition to providing critical funding enabling partners to maintain or increase their capacity during this time, the grants will also support proposals such as:

"This timely investment in fact-checking will be instrumental in supporting the fact-checking organizations working around the clock on the #CoronaVirusFacts Alliance and the International Fact-Checking Network’s verified signatories. The IFCN has demonstrated its ability to lead the largest collaboration effort on the biggest outbreak in our century and Facebook’s support is welcomed by the fact-checking community,” said Baybars Orsek, IFCN's Director.

Fact-checking organizations can find more details on IFCN’s website. Applications will be open from March 18 until April 1 at http://ifcn.submittable.com. The applications are only open to the fact-checking units that are active members of the #CoronaVirusFacts alliance and to IFCN’s verified signatories.

“The fact-checking community has been working very hard, day and night, since January to point out falsehoods about the new coronavirus. Social media platforms have a responsibility to combat this type of misinformation, it is great to see that Facebook is willing to support the CoronaVirusFacts Alliance”, said Cristina Tardáguila, the IFCN's Associate Director and the coordinator of the COVID-19 collaborative project.

We’re grateful for our network of more than 55 independent fact-checking partners and the broader community, and look forward to seeing the ongoing impact of their work.