Impact of Fact-Checking During Upcoming Elections

Bogota, Colombia – Seventy percent of Latin American people cannot correctly identify whether a news story is true or fake, according to a study published by the cyber security company Kaspersky.

The study said that traditional news media (television and radio stations, newspapers), is less credible as new media outlets appear every day.

In Colombia where the presidential election is due to be held on May 29th, fake news and misinformation spread more rapidly on some kind of social media platform.

But now that democracy in Colombia is threatened by populism, political polarization, and misinformation, fact-checking is essential with journalists working day and night to verify information everywhere.

Colombia’s director Jeanfreddy Gutiérrez said the country witnessed an explosion of misinformation over the past 72 hours. He urged politicians not to spread misinformation and lies since there are fact-checkers who provide audiences with truths on any statements.

“Now politicians know that they are not so free to deliver some specific narratives of misinformation and lies because there are fact-checkers that publish investigations fact-checking their speech and audiences take that to consideration,” Gutiérrez said.

The director added that misinformation and propaganda should be dealt with firmly as they manipulate people’s decisions and lead them to make bad choices.

Misinformation and fake news have played a significant role in Colombia’s 2018 parliamentary and presidential election campaigns.

For his part, Jose Felipe Sarmiento, deputy editor of fact-checking organization Colombiacheck, called for training the audiences to become media and information literate, which will spare the fact-checkers tons of work.

“Training the audiences could spare the fact-checkers tons of work, avoiding misleading information that sometimes is obviously fake, but for a lack of basic knowledge, they become viral,” said Sarmiento.

The deputy also mentioned that his organization has developed more techniques and prioritized more social media information which is published anonymously.

Carlos Hernandez, an interviewee from the public, urged people to follow a diversity of news sources, and be skeptical of what they read and watch.