5/27/22, 7:10 PM Faster facts: The rapid expansion of fact-checking – News in Asia about the disease that muddled facts with unsubstantiated claims. This ‘infodemic’, as the World Health Organization has dubbed it, has led to confusion, panic and even deaths. With growing awareness of the need to combat misinformation, Asia saw a dramatic expansion in the number of fact-finding initiatives in 2020. From Pakistan to Papua New Guinea, and from Mongolia to Indonesia, fact-checking projects have been introduced across the region by mainstream news organisations, web-based media outlets, non-profit organisations, governments, charitable foundations and academic institutions. The latest database compiled by the Reporters’ Lab at Duke University, which has monitored the global development of fact-checking initiatives since 2016, shows more than 300 active fact-checking outlets worldwide as of October 0 2020, out of which 82 are in Asia. 1 In 2019 in the same database, the number of fact-checkers in the region was 35. 2 Expanding on Duke University’s research, a short online survey was sent to about 50 organisations in October 2020, followed by interviews with a select number of respondents. The results, based on 40 initiatives in 18 countries and Fact‑checking initiatives worldwide territories, are used to assess Asia’s fact-checking landscape in this chapter. 3 The survey suggests there are more than 100 organisations in Asia engaging in fact-checking operations on a regular basis. This factors in the most recent initiatives and fact-checking projects by traditional media outlets surrounding 0 Based in Asia, up from 35 in 2018 specific events (such as elections), as well as government-led initiatives, which are discounted by Duke University for their potential lack of independence. Although each country has a unique misinformation ecosystem influenced by language, culture, the digital environment and legal frameworks, the survey and interviews highlighted some key trends that were common across many countries. New initiatives in fact-checking have proliferated across the region in recent years. Somewhat surprisingly, only a few fact-checkers raised concerns over their own safety despite political pressure, online harassment and legal threats being well-documented difficulties faced by journalists and fact-checkers in Asia. In contrast, many noted that societal polarisation over race, religion, ethnicity, politics, the economy and education are key factors that make their work challenging. Other pressing issues that came up tended to be more practical: scarce data (including public records), difficulty finding expert sources within a country, the time-consuming nature of fact-checking, limits to audience size, lack of funding, a shortage of useful tools in their own languages and inadequate knowledge in specific fields such as medical science among both fact-checkers and the audience. In the following sections, this chapter focuses on three areas that have significant implications for the future of fact-checking in Asia: government-led initiatives; the role of tech platforms; and emerging opportunities in audience education, automation, crowdsourcing and university collaborations. Government‑led initiatives Across Asia, government involvement in fact-checking tends to take two forms. In the first, governments establish their own fact-checking agencies, as seen in India, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam. In the second, authorities opt to work alongside platforms, media organisations and fact-checking outlets, as seen in China, Indonesia and Taiwan. Government involvement instinctively poses a question of conflict of interest because governments may attempt to appropriate the process for their own ends. Reporters Without Borders’ annual press freedom index and other research 4 shows political influence is not https://newsinasia.jninstitute.org/chapter/faster-facts-the-rapid-expansion-of-fact-checking/ 2/13