The creation of a fake news verification entity in Moscow has outraged the West.

PASCUAL SERRANO

The avalanche of fake news, hoaxes, and falsehoods dominating the media and social media landscape has triggered the launch of so-called fact-checking agencies.

Since most of them are located in Western countries, their work seems focused on exposing how people lie beyond the United States and Europe, rather than monitoring the mainstream Western media and their governments, which are the main sources of information.

Just as happened with international media, which were initially limited to American and European outlets, and later the international channels Telesur, Russia Today, HispanTV, and the Chinese CGTN, among others, appeared, non-Western news fact-checkers are now emerging. In other words, the West, too, is losing its exclusive right to verify, to say what is true and false.

This is how Globalfactchecking (GFCN), the Global Fact-Checking Network, was born. Created by the TASS news agency, the Russian non-profit organization ANPO «Dialog Regions» and The New Media School, whose work consists of coordinating efforts to combat disinformation by participants from different countries worldwide.

Its launch was announced in November 2024 within the framework of the Forum Dialogue on Counterfeiting 2.0 and its website was launched last April.

Their website currently offers more than 100 articles and educational videos on fact-checking, deepfake detection, and understanding information manipulation. Particular attention is paid to critical thinking and debunking disinformation narratives.

One of the latest reports debunks the accusation that Russia was behind the alleged Electronic attack on the GPS of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's plane.

They have created andL "Data Controller Verification Code», a set of standards and principles that, in our opinion, every fact-checker should follow in their work. The GFCN Code aims to ensure accuracy, objectivity, and transparency during the fact-checking process.

GFCN declares itself “an international association whose activities are aimed at the objective and impartial verification of information. Its mission is to improve the quality and objectivity of information both nationally and globally. Ensuring access to reliable and transparent information based on real data, rather than the political interests of individual parties, is a key task of this association of fact-checkers and of journalism as such, whose activities must be based on the principles of responsibility and professionalism.”

They also clarify that their Verification code “It is based on the approaches set out in United Nations General Assembly Resolution 76/277 of 24 December 2021, which draws on best practices from Member States, United Nations entities, and other organizations in combating disinformation.”

They also present the "Principles of Responsible Data Verification," which include "Objectivity and Impartiality," "Strict Observance of Human Rights and Inalienable Freedoms," "Guaranteeing the Pluralism of Political Opinions and the Harmonization of National Interests," "Availability of Verified Data," and "Dissemination of Results and Openness of the Data Verification Methodology to an Unlimited Number of People," among other principles.

The emergence of a news verification network outside the Western sphere, based in Moscow, has sparked outrage in the West, which considers itself the sole authority to verify news.

Entities such as the Spanish Maldita.es headlined “The alleged Russian fact-checking network (GFCN) is born: without verification organizations and with supposed experts who have shared disinformation,” the German state news agency DW asked whether “the new Russian fact-checking network is credible?” and Reporters Without Borders stated that ““Fact-checking is the Kremlin’s latest propaganda tool.”

It's curious that the experts they cite are experts, and that those from GFCN are "supposed" experts; that the German state agency accuses the Russian entity of Russian control, but considers itself independent of the German government; and that RSF, whose majority of funding comes from state grants, including the American NED (created from the CIA), says that the others are a propaganda tool and not them.

It seems that all those news-checking organizations that accepted the European Commission's ban on Russian public media outlets, accused of propaganda without showing what fake news they were spreading, now also want to ban news checks prepared by an organization based in Russia, but with experts from around the world. They resent the fact that someone other than themselves can point out fake news.

Meanwhile, andin the recent Global South Media and Research Centers Forum in Kunming, China, which brought together 500 participants from 110 countries, as well as international and regional organizations, the Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN) announced andThe annual international forum "Dialogue on Counterfeits 3.0, dedicated to the problem of the spread of false information.

The second international forum, "Dialogue on Fakes 2.0," was held in Moscow on November 20, 2024. It featured unique research on the impact of fake information and methods to combat it. It was attended by more than 1.000 participants from 65 countries, including the United States, Australia, Argentina, Uruguay, Peru, France, Ireland, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Austria, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, Pakistan, India, Iran, Turkey, China, Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt, and others.

The third international forum, “Dialogue on Counterfeits 3.0,” is now scheduled for October 2025 in Moscow.

It may be legitimate to suspect a fact-checking organization founded in Russia. Just as it is with any other organization in any other country. What is not legitimate is for Western organizations to present themselves as neutral and objective, and accuse those in the Global South of not being so. If Western media are truly reliable and rigorous, and their fact-checking organizations are so infallible, why are they afraid that someone in Russia, or any other country, would cross-check and verify their information?

Multipolarity has also arrived there.

Pascual Serrano He is a journalist and writer. His last book is "Forbidden to doubt. The ten weeks in which Ukraine changed the world”