In Colombia, the media joined a collaborative project against misinformation called RedCheq. The project brings together 16 media, universities, journalistic associations and technology companies that seek to combat misinformation in the Colombian 2019 elections.
The information checker Colombiacheck and the Editorial Board announced the launch of the project against fake news. RedCheq also has the economic and technological support of Facebook, Google. The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) will conduct monitoring to identify potentially false or misleading content on social networks and media.
Facebook has previously supported the creation of similar initiatives for data variation in Latin America, as happened with the elections in Argentina. In the 2018 elections in Mexico, the media also joined for a similar data verification initiative.
RedCheq began operating on August 14 and will run throughout the campaign until the October voting, in which governors, deputies of the Departmental Assemblies, mayors, municipal councilors and councilors of Local Administrative Boards throughout the national territory will be elected.
The members of the project will be responsible for disseminating the verified information. Facebook, on the other hand, will reduce the reach of stories that have been marked as false and will send a notification to users in case they are going to share them.
The national network of verifiers in Colombia was launched with a “Chequeatón” held in Bogotá between August 13 and 14, where about 30 independent journalists from national and regional media gathered at the Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, who completed their training in data checking and verified information on electoral issues.
“We are proud to support this unprecedented effort in Colombia to combat misinformation during the October elections; collaborating with RedCheq allows us to deepen our work to protect the integrity of the civic conversation, ”said Dulce Ramos, Program Development Manager for Latin American News Media.
The members of RedCheq (to date): El Tiempo, El Espectador, Caracol News, RCN News, Week, Vanguardia Liberal, La Opinión (Cúcuta), Newspaper 15, Entre Ojos, Rat Tail, El País (Cali), El Universal (Cartagena), El Nuevo Oriente (Yopal), Cacica Estéreo (Valledupar), Violeta Estéreo, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Pontificia Bolivariana de Medellín, Universidad del Valle, Universidad Santiago de Cali, Universidad Minuto de Dios, Electoral Observation Mission, Mobilization and Gabo Foundation.