When fact-checking is not WEIRD: Negotiating consensus outside Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) countries

Abstract

This study unpacks the emerging framework of detection, verification, and correction of falsehoods developed by fact-checkers outside Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic (WEIRD) countries. We explore a series of semi-structured interviews carried out in several languages with 37 fact-checking experts from 35 organizations in 27 countries across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Our findings emphasize the contextual nature of the falsehoods that these professionals deal with on a daily basis, and the many strategies they employ to navigate cultural and political obstacles while strengthening social cohesion locally. We review these findings against the literature in the area and argue that the prevailing framework of fact-checking, where mis- and disinformation are reduced to individual and behavioral problems, underplays the social and historical dimensions driving disinformation and propaganda.