Open Society Foundations

Even if you don’t care about being chased by the latest sneaker or flight destination that you’ve recently searched for, the ongoing Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal has shed light on a common and disturbing practice undertaken by the world’s largest social network: the vast amount of personal data gathered about us is progressively used to shape our behavior, wishes and needs.

For many — especially women and non-binary people — this approach can be even more aggressive, reinforcing gender roles, heteronormativity and, therefore, discrimination against diversity.

Today, we need access to the truth more than ever before. But in this polluted information environment, it’s never been harder to know what to trust, and never easier to be misled. Misinformation is targeting and damaging our communities, all around the world.

At First Draft, our mission is to protect communities from harmful misinformation. We work to empower society with the knowledge, understanding, and tools needed to outsmart false and misleading information.

El Poder de Elegir is a project to monitor and fact-check the political information that circulates through WhatsApp during the campaign period of the presidential elections of 2018. It is proposed to monitor and verify in real time the information that circulates through this messaging service and that is related to candidates and elections, in order to be leaders in the debate on voter manipulation strategies, involving civil society.

Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation that exists to promote accuracy and honesty in public debate and the media in Africa. Africa Check not only serves as a fact-checking source for multiple countries on the continent, but also provides how-to tips that teach private citizens to perform fact checking on their own. Devised by the non-profit media development arm of the international news agency AFP, Africa Check is an independent organisation with offices in Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos and Dakar.

In the United States, during the electoral process that brought Donald Trump to the presidency, more than 10 million potential voters had access to false news spread on social networks. The project intentionally takes up the name that a group of young people used in the quake to inform and serve as a bridge between those who needed help and those who could provide it. Verificado19S is a response to the absence or inefficiency of the government and the spread of false data, which only served to confuse, generate fear or divert the help that was needed.