Meta policy reversal puts question mark on future of fact-checking

PARIS, France — Media outlets around the world have been left scratching their heads over the future of their fact-checking operations after Meta's shock announcement that it will halt its US program.

Here are the key facts about how the practice has developed and what could lie ahead for the sector.

Fact-checking emerged in the United States in the early 2000s to become a genre of journalism all its own.

The practice rode the rising wave of internet usage and was the lifeblood of new media operations pitting politicians' statements against reality.

PolitiFact, a landmark of the sector, was launched in 2007 and won a Pulitzer prize in 2009.

Methods like live corrections to figures provided on TV or online articles marked up as true or false spread around the world,  providing the foundation for the next stage.

Social media giants were already labouring under allegations that their platforms were being used to spread disinformation and conspiracy theories when scrutiny increased following 2016's shock Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump to the US presidency.

Meta and other web firms stoked the spread of fact-checking beyond politics, enlisting media organisations that saw the activity as a welcome new revenue opportunity in a sector struggling to stay afloat.

Ten organisations are affected by Meta's announcement that it will end fact-checking in the US.

Some, such as Check Your Fact, are totally dependent on income from the tech firm, US outlet Business Insider reported.

Others including PolitiFact are less exposed, with the outlet receiving a little over five percent of its revenue from the Meta partnership, according to the New York Times.

AFP currently works in 26 languages with Facebook's fact checking program, in which Facebook pays to use fact checks from around 80 organisations globally on its platform, WhatsApp and on Instagram.

The news agency's management has said it is "evaluating the situation".

African media appear particularly exposed should Meta's worldwide fact-checking program be stopped.

"There are business models that are more or less dependent on Facebook" such as the Johannesburg-based Africa Check, said Laurent Bigot, a journalism