About
Presentation
DE FACTO is the first independent space where researchers, journalists and professionals in media and information education join forces in the fight against disinformation.
Its ambition is to promote the quality of information – essential for our democracies –, the diversity of public debate and the regulation of digital platforms.
Main objective: to promote awareness, develop critical thinking regarding everything that circulates on the internet and social networks, and create the reflex to check before sharing.
DE FACTO provides the keys to distinguish fact from fiction.
Why join forces?
More than ever, faced with the multiplicity of sources of information and the difficulty of verifying, we must react, understand, and educate.
React , by pooling the recognized fact-checking practices of major French newsrooms to deal with disinformation campaigns. Then understand the origins and impact of disinformation. Finally, educate , by developing in all audiences a sense of discernment and independence of mind.
To meet these requirements, it is essential to bring together journalists, researchers and education professional
What are our principles?
1. Pluralism. DE FACTO brings together many leading French fact-checkers to offer the greatest diversity.
2. Independence. Financially supported by the European Commission, DE FACTO works in complete editorial independence, particularly with regard to the government and European institutions. The themes covered are chosen freely.
3. Stepping back. The ambition is also to offer the public studies and training in order to analyze and reflect on the French information ecosystem.
4. Tools. DE FACTO offers tools and data to decipher the mechanisms of information production.
5. Dialogue with everyone. DE FACTO is aimed at all audiences and all generations. It is essential to encourage dialogue within families and make each person aware of their role and responsibility in the spread of reliable information.
Partners
Agence France Presse
AFP is a global news agency, providing rapid, comprehensive and verified coverage of current events as well as the themes that shape our daily lives. With an unrivalled network of 1700 journalists in 150 countries, AFP relays news in 6 languages, with a unique multimedia production in video, text, photography and infographic. Since 2017, AFP has positioned itself as a world leader in digital investigation, with some 150 journalists working in 26 languages to expose disinformation/misinformation. AFP's fact checks are available to the general public on its AFP Fact Check site.
CARISM - Université Panthéon-Assas
At Université Paris Panthéon-Assas, staff in information and communication sciences are affiliated with the Institut Français de Presse (IFP), founded in 1937. They conduct their research within the CARISM laboratory, a research lab specializing mainly in media, journalism, and information.
In this European project, CARISM is responsible for monitoring and analyzing the use of AI-generated content for disinformation purposes. It also evaluates educational tools to fight against fake news within the IFP, as well as in partnership with the CLEMI for trainings in schools.
CLEMI
The CLEMI (Center for Media and Information Literacy) aims to train teachers to gain better knowledge of the news media system and to build children’s citizenship skills by fostering their critical thinking of media and information. By training teachers and providing resources for pupils to find and assess information, CLEMI’s role is to empower children to become informed citizens. CLEMI has also extended its mission beyond schools, by helping parents navigate through a world in full digital transition.
These actions are in line with CLEMI’s goal to work together with European and international institutions.
As part of the DE FACTO project, CLEMI is also committed to boosting the training of teachers to tackle disinformation and will produce educational resources to help students and the public be better informed.
Entre les lignes
Entre les lignes is a media literacy association created in 2010. It brings together more than 260 journalists from Agence France-Presse (AFP), Le Monde Group and Contexte.
Each year, our volunteers hold more than 500 workshops across France and overseas, mainly in schools but also with adult audiences. Additionally, Entre les lignes has been providing professional training since 2018.
Our goal is to foster critical thinking among our audiences, to provide them with tools and perspectives to help restore trust between the media and the general public – a major challenge facing democracies and our profession.
The Fondation Descartes
The Fondation Descartes is a civil society, non-partisan, independent and European foundation dedicated to the challenges related to information and the public debate in the age of the Internet and social networks. The reflections and studies carried out within the Fondation Descartes are intended to nourish the reflections on the conditions to produce sincere information (i.e. information that is accurate, complete and devoid of any intent to distort the understanding of the facts reported), which is an essential pillar of a healthy democracy.
Franceinfo
Franceinfo is the global information media of the public service, offering coverage on radio channels, television (channel 27 of TNT), on digital platforms (website and mobile application) and on social media. This cross-media offering is supplied by all the actors of public broadcasting: Radio France, France Télévisions, France Médias Monde, and the INA. Every day, franceinfo journalists deliver accurate, certified, and verified news in real time with articles, interviews, reports and analyses.
Les Surligneurs
Les Surligneurs is an independent media outlet that contributes to the fight against disinformation. The project was founded in 2017 during the presidential campaign. A collective of academic and legal experts decided to offer fact checking of political statements marking the birth of legal checking, the verification of compliance of statements made by political figures with the law. Soon after, Les Surligneurs also provided legal insights and analyses of current events. Since 2024, the media has been expanding and launching itself in the verification of false information on all topics, particularly on social media.
CheckNews
CheckNews was created in September 2017, succeeding Libération’s Désintox. Désintox, launched in 2008, was the first fact-checking outlet of the French press. Initially, Desintox fact-checked mostly politicians. However, the misinformation landscape changed, prompting us to expand our coverage.
Social media and certain news outlets, often drawn into activist dynamics, continue to spread even more disinformation. New services, sometimes serving foreign interests, spread their propaganda.
CheckNews is a fact-checking, investigative and educational service. We take time to step back, where news often moves too fast.
20 Minutes
Created in 2002, 20 Minutes is an independent news publisher equally owned by SIPA-Ouest-France and Rossel Group. It has an audience of 19 million monthly users, with over 80% accessing via digital platforms. Highly committed to the fight against disinformation, the editorial team was awarded the prestigious certification by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), in 2017.
MediaConnect
MediaConnect is a platform that aims to facilitate and optimize relations between information professionals – journalists, freelance writers and bloggers – and communication managers of institutions, companies and organizations. Its mission has two goals:
- Make information published by communication managers more easily accessible.
- Facilitate media work and access to certified information.
XWiki SAS
XWiki SAS is an independent European company that publishes the 100% open source solutions XWiki and CryptPad. XWiki is a knowledge management tool that has been implemented by XWiki SAS in more than 500 projects worldwide over the last 16 years. CryptPad is a privacy-friendly alternative to desktop tools and cloud services. XWiki SAS is responsible for the development of the DE FACTO platform.
The European network
DE FACTO is a hub that is part of a larger European collective – EDMO (European Digital Media Observatory) – that covers all 27 EU member states as well as Norway. Each hub contributes to:
- Detecting and analysing disinformation campaigns, as well as producing content to support mainstream and local media and public authorities in exposing harmful disinformation campaigns;
- Organising media literacy activities at national or multinational level;
- Providing support to national authorities for the monitoring of online platforms’ policies and the digital media ecosystem.
EDMO is a consortium led by the European University Institute in Florence (Italy), in partnership with Athens Technology Center (Greece), Aahrus University (Denmark) and the fact-checking organization Pagella Politica (Italy).
