For Donald Trump, they are among "the most dishonest people in the media," for Elon Musk they count as "the biggest liars," and Mark Zuckerberg sees them as "politically biased." The three are talking about fact-checkers — journalists who verify potential false claims and disinformation and counter them with fact-based information. It should not be particularly surprising that the powerful of the world are not always pleased with this work — especially when some of their own statements do not stand up to the facts.

No US visas for foreign fact-checkers?

But the fact that governments explicitly take action against fact-checkers marks a new dimension in political discourse and raises questions about press freedom: The Trump administration instructed its officials to deny US visas to foreign fact-checkers — claiming they were supposedly practicing "censorship" of free expression. The International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), which includes DW, criticized this move and rejected the allegations.

Since 2016, International Fact-Checking Day has drawn attention to the work of fact-checkersand their fight against disinformation. More than 160 media organizations worldwide are now certified by the IFCN and collaborate across borders. Political headwinds and a post-factual discourse on social media are not the only challenges fact-checkers face globally. AI-driven disinformation is currently booming, partly because such content is now very easy and quick to produce. As more than half of all text content on the internet is now AI-generated, the number of deepfakes is skyrocketingand the quality of manipulative AI fakes is constantly improving, the challenge for fact-checkers is only growing. 

Studies show that fact-checks significantly reduce belief in misinformation and also that fact-checking not only has an immediate effect, but can also build up a kind of "cognitive immunity"through repeated exposure to corrections.