Faktisk.no: Norway's pioneering fact-checking organisation

THE VERIFICATION BAR: Just two weeks after the war broke out in Ukraine, Faktisk.no organized a joint verification desk for all the media in Norway. 32 reporters and researchers from 12 different medias worked together in this OSINT operation. All organized and led by Faktisk.no.

People at a bar — The verification bar image.

TRIPLE THE REACH: The small editorial staff of fact-checkers reaches a huge audience by giving everything away for free. In 2022, more than 40 Norwegian media outlets published their stories on their platforms through their embed solution or via the Norwegian wire service NTB.

Screenshot of three iphones — Triple the reach image.

Since its launch in 2017, Faktisk.no has been Norway's only dedicated independent non-profit fact-checking organisation, with a mission to fact-check the public discourse in the country.

The initiative was unique in itself. Imagine The Guardian, The Times, BBC, and ITV coming together to form a united fact-checking organization. This is what occurred in Norway. A consortium of the six largest and competing media organizations, NRK, TV 2, VG, Dagbladet, Amedia and Polaris Media, owns and partly funds Faktisk.no.

The organisation aims to contribute to an open, inclusive, and fact-based public conversation by examining the foundation of current claims affecting our perception of reality. This way, Faktisk.no works towards promoting a fact-based discourse and a constructive societal debate.

Additionally, Faktisk.no is dedicated to uncovering and preventing the spread of disinformation and misinformation. Through knowledge-building and expertise exchange, Faktisk.no aspires to be an open laboratory for source awareness, critical media use and media literacy in Norway.

Giving it away for free

Fact-checking organisations face the challenge of reaching audiences who need them the most but are less likely to seek out fact-checking sites. With viral hoaxes spreading rapidly, fact-checkers often struggle to counteract the misinformation within a short time frame.

Recognising this, Faktisk.no opted for a different approach, making their content available for free to anyone who could help spread their fact-checks. Faktisk.no created a system of embed codes, allowing users to easily share content on various platforms. They also partnered with the Norwegian News Agency (NTB), which automatically distributes Faktisk.no's content and embed codes to its customers through its newswire service.

This enables fact-checks to be read anywhere online in Norway, reaching readers on news sites they visit regularly. The four founding news organisations—VG, Dagbladet, NRK, and TV 2—are the largest distributors of Faktisk.no's content, reaching two thirds of the Norwegian population daily. Numerous local, regional, and national news sites, publishers, and bloggers also use Faktisk.no's content, with the number increasing almost every month.

Even alternative news sites with skepticism towards mainstream media regularly share Faktisk.no's fact-checks, making it harder for their audience to dismiss the content as propaganda or fake news.

Growing premise provider

In just a few years, Faktisk.no has become a central premise provider in the conversation about the Norwegian media landscape. This position has been achieved through persistent and systematic work in mapping misinformation, alternative media, and conspiracy theories online.

When Faktisk.no was launched nearly six years ago, influential players in the Norwegian media industry predicted its imminent demise. Others couldn't understand the point of the fact-checking genre. Fake news and disinformation weren't a problem in Norway, were they?

With seven employees, four of whom were on loan, they started from scratch on July 5, 2017. Nearly six years later, including four years covering President Trump, three years of the pandemic, two years of the aftermath of the storming of the U.S. Capitol, and one year of war in Europe, the world has demonstrated how disinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theories threaten our society and democracy.

This has also shaped the fact-checkers' work and efforts. By the end of 2022, Faktisk.no had become a small media house with 15 employees and three departments. In addition, they spearheaded a large Ukraine war verification project on behalf of the entire Norwegian media industry.

In 2022, over 40 Norwegian media outlets published their stories on their platforms through their embed solution or via the Norwegian wire service NTB. Faktisk.no was also cited over 1,000 times by other Norwegian media. Several of their stories have led to important debates, such as their investigation into the spread of Russian propaganda in Norwegian alternative media, and ties to leading politicians and parties in parliament.

It's no coincidence that Faktisk.no is among the most frequently cited individual media outlets in the Norwegian Freedom of Expression Commission's report (NOU 2022: 9). Here, Faktisk.no's work in mapping the spread of misinformation and conspiracy theories is highlighted, with their journalism forming an essential foundation for the commission's understanding of the digital public sphere.

Broad Approach

The expertise and methods developed by and in their newsroom benefit the entire media industry. Additionally, this knowledge and expertise are passed on to the next generation through Faktisk.no's own education and media literacy department, Tenk (think), established in 2019. In close collaboration with the editorial team, they promote increased awareness of facts and source criticism among future media users.

In just three years, Tenk has become an essential provider of updated knowledge on source awareness and critical media use in Norwegian schools. They offer over 100 free educational programs in a custom-built online portal, along with other resources such as articles, conversation cards, and quizzes for teachers, librarians, and youth workers. In 2022, the school portal had over 475,000 page views, with 52,869 student entries.

Tenk has become a huge success because it addresses a growing demand from teachers and educational institutions. Source criticism and media literacy are becoming increasingly important for today's children and adolescents, and they are relevant across all subjects.

Developing teaching resources on source criticism while working closely with fact-checking and current news events that young people encounter in their daily lives makes the work Tenk does much more up-to-date, useful, and relevant.

Providing insight

In the Autumn of 2021, Faktisk.no expanded with another department: Faktisk Insight. The purpose of this department is to strengthen Faktisk.no's innovation capacity within analysis and technology development.

The department also manages partnerships and collaborations with Norwegian and international partners, including Meta's third party fact-checking programme, and plays a leading role in the Nordic EDMO-hub NORDIS, an association of researchers and fact-checkers working to combat and prevent misinformation and disinformation in the Nordic countries.

Through Insight, Faktisk is positioning itself as a central player in innovation and knowledge development within the media industry. Collaborating with organisations like NTB, OsloMet University, investigative journalism consortiums, and the National Library, the department is involved in the newly launched MAI (Media and AI) knowledge network. Additionally, Faktisk.no is working with OsloMet University to map Norwegian media's climate coverage and the National Library to develop AI-based summarisation technology.

Faktisk Verifiserbar - Ensuring Accurate Information Amidst Crisis

The need for accurate information became evident when Vladimir Putin launched an attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022. With social media flooded with images, videos, and witness accounts, Norwegian newsrooms faced a dire need to verify content to avoid publishing propaganda, lies, and fake news. Faktisk.no took the initiative to create a verification "hub" in partnership with major Norwegian media outlets.

The project, dubbed Faktisk Verifiserbar (because it was set up in a closed bar), brought together 12 media houses and 32 reporters and researchers, all organized and led by Faktisk.no. This cross-collaboration model is unique internationally, breaking down traditional editorial barriers during an ongoing news event.

This project has delivered quality journalism to a large audience and has ensured the accuracy of Norwegian media's coverage of the war in Ukraine. The project has gained significant national and international attention as a prime example of Norwegian media's ability to collaborate in the fight against disinformation and fake news to protect press freedom and democracy.

Building Competence and Sharing Knowledge

In 2022, Faktisk.no co-hosted the largest-ever Global Fact conference in Oslo, welcoming over 500 fact-checkers, researchers, and journalists from 69 countries. The conference, organised by the International Fact-checking Network (IFCN), featured prominent speakers such as Anne Applebaum, Joan Donovan, Craig Silverman, and Jane Lytvynenko.

Faktisk.no also hosted the European Fact-Checking Standards Network Project, which drafted the first-ever binding pan-European ethics code for newsrooms conducting fact-checking. This historic event took place at Pressens Hus in Oslo.

Building and further developing expertise in fact-checking, media literacy, source awareness, and verification journalism are central to Faktisk.no's work. Therefore, they actively disseminate information to both Norwegian and international media professionals. They have held lectures, courses, and workshops for journalists, fact-checkers, and authorities worldwide.

The goal is to build on the values Faktisk.no is founded on - the broadest possible collaboration to combat disinformation and misinformation that threaten our societies and democracy.

This can perhaps be most simply summed up in Faktisk.no's slogan: Friends don't let friends believe in untruths.

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