By Sara Sánchez Suárez.
Getafe, Madrid.
Lidia Sanchez is a Mexican journalist who has participated in fact-checking projects on different platforms. Her profession makes her a person used to dealing with misinformation and social networks. She uses journalism as a weapon against hoaxes and talks about her work with passion.
Fact-checking is more than what it seems, it is not only based on reviewing images and viral data on Twitter or Facebook. Fact-checkers must know how disinformation behaves on different platforms; what spreads on Telegram or Whatsapp is not always the same thing that will spread on Twitter.
A fact-checker is dedicated to monitoring social networks, locating potentially fake content, and working to verify it. Although it sounds simple enough, their job is quite complex. They must review various sources, cross-check them, interview them and provide the reader with the best information possible. It's not much different from what any other type of reporter would do. But their job consists of something more "we must make sure that what we publish cannot be refuted at all."
"Misinformation kills." Lidia gives us the example of the COVID-19 pandemic, when hoaxes led people to extreme situations in which they ingested toxic substances believing they would avoid becoming infected.
"Being a fact-checker faces you with great challenges, but the most important one is that the people who see your work are reassured or satisfied with what they read; in other words, that the objective of providing a service to the population for better decision making is met."
Five false remedies against the COVID-19 given by mexican politicians, a video by Animal Político.
Projects with an impact
The journalist worked on the verification project of Agence France-Presse and Facebook. Thanks to this the platform has a protocol against those who publish false information. How does this work? "Once we fact-checkers mark a content as false or inaccurate, a legend appears on the content indicating that it is not true, so users who shared that content and those who see it further or try to share it will know it. Also, Facebook reduces the reach of that type of content."
According to Lidia this project has been one of the reasons why verification work has taken on more relevance and is more visible than before. Ultimately she believes that the fact-checking community has benefited from the pressure Facebook came under after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. "That pressure has spread to other platforms, and it is the user who wins by being able to access verified information."
The verifier says social networks reflect our society. "While they are not entirely to blame for the misinformation that is shared through them, they do have a social and civic responsibility to reduce its spread." The opportunities for platforms to improve are there, by being able to be transparent in their use of personal data and creating tools for researchers and journalists analysing disinformation.
She also led Animal Político’s project on disinformation during Mexico's 2021 elections. When asked about the impact her work can have in this context she highlights that commitment with the public is the same in any context.
"With polarization, in any topic and country, it makes that work more difficult and many times those who oppose a certain idea or topic often attack the fact-checkers or journalists for what they publish. Threats can be online or move into the physical world."
This polarization is very present in an election period. "You mix misinformation with propaganda and unverifiable attacks between candidates." When the situation arises of finding an unverifiable information, fact-checkers evaluate whether they should publish a note explaining that there is no evidence to confirm that assertion or not. The International Fact-checking Network's verification protocol indicates that in election periods it should be kept in mind whether verification reduces or contributes to a greater scope of misinformation.
To end this interview Lidia Sánchez offers a reflection for those who wish to enter the world of fact-checking:
"Narrative journalism books have led us to believe that the real journalist is the one who is on the streets all the time, traveling, witnessing wars or injustices in remote communities. But the reality is no longer like that. You do not wait days or weeks for the war correspondent to come and tell you what is happening on the other side of the world. Information moves with the speed of a click.
It's important for us to realize that desktop journalism is valuable. Fact-checking is a lot of that, spending hours in front of the computer watching, listening, reading content - even disturbing content - but which has the same impact in real life as those injustices that are generated in those distant lands that, in fact, today very few are fortunate enough to cover.
It seems to me that as a society we have been mistaken in thinking that what happens on the internet does not have an impact on real life. And that same misconception has been taken to journalism, but there are movements that are generated in these social media channels that we can monitor, analyse, report and make visible before it becomes a physical problem. A clear example of this is what happened on Capitol Hill in the United States in January 2021.
Fact-checking is just as exciting as any other type of reporting. If you like it and it appeals to you, there is nothing better than having more colleagues in the virtual field.”
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