One of the first fact checks<\/a> on the site examined community support for the so-called “peace walls” that separate many neighborhoods.<\/p>\n\n\n\nViral memes carrying misleading information are a problem across the globe, but they can be particularly pernicious in a combustible political environment like Northern Ireland’s. The raising or burning of flags in the province can stoke serious tensions \u2014 even if these images are actually of flags being burned in other parts of the world. Beyond correcting the record, simple tools like reverse image search can therefore help avoid violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For this reason, FactCheckNI will also be providing interactive fact-checking training sessions to communities across the province, led by Enda Young, a mechanical engineer turned conflict mediator, who is the co-founder of Transformative Connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Although it confines its efforts to Northern Ireland, FactCheckNI has benefited from the increasing collaboration among fact-checkers worldwide. Young and his wife Orna, a community-based researcher, attended last year\u2019s Global Fact-Checking Summit in London and view it as a form of \u201ccrash course\u201d that helped them focus on the practical steps involved in launching a fact-checking project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Also fundamental for FactCheckNI\u2019s launch was support from Full Fact<\/a>: The London-based fact-checking organization provided training and a template the Northern Irish project could build upon. Like Full Fact, FactCheckNI\u2019s fact checks tend to be brief and avoid a rating system.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAllan Leonard, the managing director of the Northern Ireland Foundation, stresses the importance of FactCheckNI\u2019s own correction policy as a tool to build trust. Any correction to the fact-checkers\u2019 own work will be visibly marked with a red triangle at the top of the fact check through which readers will also be able to access the original version. As with many fact-checking organizations, FactCheckNI hopes to spur corrections but also foster a culture of critical thinking that transcends political preferences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But will any of it make a difference? The day after FactCheckNI\u2019s launch, local comedian Tim Mc Garry ironically alluded at the hurdles the fact-checkers will need to overcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n