China launches 'fact-checking community' in Shanghai

China's first "fact-checking community" spearheaded by professional media outlets was inaugurated at the International Fact-Checking Partner Summit held in Shanghai on Thursday.

The Paper, a major online news platform in China, united with journalism schools at Fudan University, Nanjing University, Beijing Normal University and Shanghai International Studies University, along with the web portal ifeng.com, to inaugurate the community, which sets its sights on bolstering societal media literacy.

As fact-checking emerges as a critical "internet infrastructure" amid the information explosion and AI boom, said experts, the community will be committed to integrating resources from academia, industry and digital platforms, and enhancing cross-boundary and interdisciplinary fact-checking efforts.

The collaborative endeavor aims to bolster the veracity of information dissemination and to reinvigorate media credibility, all in the pursuit of cultivating a more transparent and reliable information landscape.

At the summit, which was hosted by The Paper and the Institute of Global Communication and Media Studies at Fudan University, some experts said the spread of misinformation and disinformation in today's world has reached a situation that may be not conducive to the growth of human beings due to the speed of the Internet communication and the infinite number of online readers.

Ian Phillips, director of the news and media division of the Department of Global Communications at the United Nations, said a world without journalism is one that nobody wants to entertain.

"Media workers do such important work in terms of fact-checking, holding authorities accountable, and shining a light on important topics," he said, "It's so important for media to work together".

At the summit, nearly 100 well-known journalists, excellent practitioners of fact-checking, experts and scholars who study fake news and relevant technologies from home and abroad, as well as leaders of technology companies, international institutions and business platforms, shared cases, brainstormed and built consensus on the global challenge of misinformation and disinformation in the AI era.