and from within Sri Lanka, might be in Arabic. And I don’t know whether that’s always picked up that well by fact checkers working in these organizations, because I don’t think we have the language capacity. (interview, 2021) In Bangladesh, dialects of Bengali pose problems for fact checking on social media, according to Sumon Rahman: “In most cases, misinformation is found in local dialects. And even we don’t understand some of them” (interview, 2021). Secondly, fact checkers sometimes struggle to access the latest data and statistics that are needed to debunk mis- or disinformation. Often this is because government sources or websites do not publish the latest reports and statistics. According to Panthi, South Asia Check in Nepal has faced issues due to organized government data and government websites not containing the latest statistics. This means that fact checkers have to write to or call government officials to verify data, which can lead to delays in publishing fact checks (interview, 2021). Ellen Tordesillas, from the Philippines, shared similar concerns. The speed of publishing a fact-checked article is also affected by the problems in accessing sources: “Access to information is a huge problem, because we have to write/call people and get official statements/official documents. This is not easy” (interview, 2021). Asel Sooronbaeva spoke of deliberate attempts by the government of Kyrgyzstan to stop journalists from accessing information by making the process unnecessarily difficult (interview, 2021). According to Mahoshadi Peiris from Factcheck.lk, “contradictory government messaging” is an obstacle: “We have multiple state ministries and ministers under the health ministry, and they all say different things [related to Covid-19]” (interview, 2021). Information from international organizations, on the other hand, is mostly available in English only, which can pose a problem due to language barriers. For example, Dulamkhorloo Baatar discussed the challenges faced in using information about Covid-19 obtained from legitimate sources such as the WHO. Not only fact checkers and journalists but even the Mongolian government have encountered difficulties in translating such information and disseminating it among the public. This has led to an increase in information disorder in relation to Covid-19: “There were occasions when the Ministry of Health misinterpreted some WHO guidelines and a research article published on Lancet and announced [this information] during their official press conference. The main most I N FO R M ATI O N D I SO R D ER IN THE GLOBA L SOUTH trustworthy sources for certain topics are in English” (interview, 2021). INFORMATION DISORDER ACROSS DIFFERENT PLATFORMS AND LANGUAGES Mis- or disinformation does not stay on one platform, in one language, or in one geographical region. It tends to mutate, either organically or due to deliberate attempts by agents, and move across platforms, languages, and even countries (Christopoulou 2019; Waghre and Seth 2020). This is a major problem in India due to the inherent complexities of the country. According to H. R. Venkatesh, BOOM India has to fact check the same mis- or disinformation at different times in different local languages: “The same piece of misinformation will prop up in multiple languages, so the moment you’ve dealt with it in Hindi, it will probably pop up in Bengali; the moment you’ve dealt with it in Bengali, it will pop up in Punjabi; the moment you’ve dealt with it in Punjabi, it will pop up in Malayalam” (interview, 2021). Sandun Arosha explained how in Sri Lanka the same message can appear in various forms, creating challenges for fact checkers: “So that [message] came [in the form of] a WhatsApp message. And then it came as a police media release, then an audio message, [but] it’s the same thing” (interview, 2021). According to Yvonne Chua, fact checking in local dialects is a major problem in the Philippines, as there are so many dialects. Certain politicians, including the president, tend to take advantage of this situation by switching to a dialect in the middle of a speech being delivered in English or Filipino. This means that journalists and fact checkers are at a disadvantage in fact checking certain parts of the speech—sections which are generally more sensitive/controversial in nature: “We have quite a number of dialects. [This] is really a challenge for fact checkers, I think we’re missing out. It would be great to have a fact-checking team with people who know different dialects” (interview, 2021). TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES Challenges in the fact-checking process related to tools and techniques include a lack of access to new tools and techniques and difficulties in debunking certain types of mis- and disinformation (such as images and videos), among others. Asia – 2 2 8