collaboration and partnerships in working on some stories (interview, 2021). The categorization of the news item that has gone through a fact check also plays a role in the output format. Each fact-checking organization has its own way of categorizing content (Graves and Cherubini 2016). For example, Nepal Fact Check uses a fourcolor system, with green indicating true or correct information; red indicating fake information; yellow indicating misleading information, partly incorrect information, or information where there is no logical connection; and black indicating information that cannot be verified as true or false.3 SOURCES Traditional media such as newspapers, television, and radio, along with online media—including digital media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, and direct messaging platforms such as WhatsApp—can all be sources of stories to be fact checked (Silverman 2015). Fact checkers in Asia are faced with the challenge of accessing reliable sources in the context of government-imposed limitations and language barriers. According to Abohon Sultonnazarov, regional director of the Institute of War and Peace Reporting, fact checkers and journalists in Central Asia often have to rely on government sources, as these might be the only sources of information available. But they have to be vigilant in checking the authenticity of the information they receive from the government (interview, 2021). Asel Sooronbaeva noted that she and her team rely only on available sources for fact checks and use a multitude of tools to comb through Englishand Russian-language databases. They also use government sources of information (interview, 2021). According to Oiwan Lam of the Factcheck Lab in Hong Kong, their fact checkers “take references from other fact-checking organizations. If they have conducted related fact checking, we will check their source and see if we can also cite it as a reference. And we also take references from media outlets which have a proven professional editorial process” (interview, 2021). TOOLS Fact checkers have a wide range of tools and techniques in their arsenal. Fact checkers with I N FO R M ATI O N D I SO R D ER IN THE GLOBA L SOUTH affiliations to international organizations such as Facebook can benefit from more advanced tools and databases. Fact checkers also rely on more conventional journalistic tools as well. A fact checker from a fact-check agency in Sri Lanka, who preferred to remain anonymous, stated, “We use methods like conventional journalistic approaches, like interviews, and also digital methods” (interview, 2021). Other tools that were commonly mentioned during the interviews include Data Viewer, Google Street View, Google Maps, Google Earth, Google Reverse Image Search, CrowdTangle, SentiOne, and Claim Buster. Some of the interviewees also use tools powered by artificial intelligence (AI), even though these tools have many limitations. Vidushi Marda, a lawyer and senior program officer at Article 19, pointed out: “AI systems don’t understand nuance at all, don’t understand context. The systems don’t understand cultural nuances that differ from place to place” (interview, 2021). On the other hand, Sumon Rahman, professor of media studies and journalism at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh, ​​acknowledges the positive impact AI-powered tools can have on tackling information disorder if supported by strong databases: “I think we can solve the problem 80 percent or 70 percent [through] AI, and the rest of it can be done manually. So I don’t think AI can solve the whole problem. But AI can solve it to a greater extent if we have a proper database to support it” (interview, 2021). DISSEMINATION OF FACT CHECKS Once a story has been checked, the corrected information—with justifications, details of sources, and explanations—needs to be communicated to the public. Fact checkers use a variety of methods to achieve this. Firstly, if they are attached to a media organization, fact checkers will receive space to publish their stories and the social media pages of the media organization will also publish the fact checks. Some independent fact-checking organizations have created formal or informal partnerships with traditional media, social media, and direct messaging platforms so that they can publish their fact checks on a regular basis. Other fact-checking organizations have their own websites, social media platforms, and direct messaging accounts that they use to disseminate corrected information. The aim of many organizations is to attract their primary audience to their main platforms of dissemination and then create a conversation around the fact check Asia – 2 03