Fact Checkers Play Crucial Role in Upcoming Colombian Presidential Elections

Bogota, Colombia – As Colombian presidential elections loom, fact-checking is essential in a country where disinformation is spreading and becoming a more complex phenomenon based on emerging techniques of deception.

The country’s main political parties have been accused of creating fake news stories and exacerbating political polarization, and social media websites are overflowing with misinformation.

Fact-checkers are dedicated to verifying false claims and fighting misinformation about opposite candidates ahead of the May 29th elections.

Juan Esteban Lewin, Editorial Director of La Silla Vacia, a local media outlet compromised with Fact-Checking, urged voters to be self-organized citizen Journalists who can play an important role in verifying information.

Lewin added that fake news and misleading information played a significant role in the plebiscite to approve the Peace talks with the FARC guerrillas in 2016 and even altered the results.

After disinformation affected the results of the October 2016 elections, journalists and specialists began to pay more attention to what was being circulated on social media by checking and verifying fake news.

Sania Salazar, Editor of RedCheck, a company dedicated to Fact-Checking during this election emphasized the importance of fact-checking in helping people elect their preferred candidates for the election.

“The lies have always existed, but social networks have made them going further and quicker everywhere,” Salazar said.
The presidential candidate for the Pacto Historico Party remains the front-runner in the election, while the candidate for the conservative party has vaulted into second place, according to a poll released by Invamer.

The poll found that the candidate of the Pacto Historico Party is favored by 43.6% of prospective voters, while the candidate for the conservative party has 26.7%.

Both candidates are very active in social media, and both campaigns distribute a lot of information via WhatsApp, which helps the cause of the fake newsmakers.
The former guerrilla and former Bogota’s Mayor 61-year-old Petro would need 50% of the vote to avoid second-round voting on June 19th.

“One of the central questions on the verification is what we should verify and what is not worth it, because we have limited capacity to verify, at the same time we have to choose and check if it is viral,” Lewin said.

Alejandro Rincon, AFP Fact-Checking Editor, stressed journalists’ essential role in verifying the information before transmitting it.

“We work on content known as Fake, manipulated, made on purpose to misinform and we get to the bottom of it, verify its origin and from there demonstrate (it is fake) and to take it down.”