TOKYO — The global fact-checking community is at a crossroads as the number of organizations that track and correct misinformation dwindles due to financial strain and growing hostility from governments and politicians under scrutiny.
In the 2000s, there were fewer than 20 fact-checking agencies globally. However, their numbers began to increase in 2016, a year marked by the Brexit referendum in Britain and Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 accelerated this trend, as the demand for online data verification increased.