opics such as COVID-19, climate, the Ukraine war and elections are the most susceptible to disinformation, digital investigation expert Estelle Péard from the French news agency AFP told the Croatian state news agency Hina in an interview.

AFP recently held a training session for journalists at the Adria Digital Media Observatory (ADMO) hub in Zagreb, sharing knowledge about disinformation and the techniques they use in fighting against it. AFP conducts such sessions in several European countries, and has a platform with free online courses on digital investigation.

“AFP has been writing about disinformation spreading in Croatia for several years, and there is also a fact checker based in Zagreb. The agency, together with other partners, is also part of the Croatian-Slovenian hub for combating disinformation called ADMO,” Péard said.

AFP carried out 7,840 fact checks last year

The French news agency has been engaged in digital investigations since 2017, when it started with just one journalist in Paris. “We now have a team of around 140 people around the world working in more than 30 offices and in 26 languages. In 2022, AFP’s digital investigation department carried out 7,840 fact checks worldwide,” Péard said.

The training begins with an explanation of what disinformation and digital investigation are and with an introduction to the tools fact checkers use in their work, such as a reverse search to find the origin of an image or video shared online or the geolocation of scenes seen along with misleading claims.

The participants were advised on how to stay safe on the Internet, protect themselves from unwanted content and improve their search on the Internet and social networks. Péard says that narratives and technologies are constantly evolving, which is exactly why the tools need to be adapted for online investigation.

“We do this by following the changes in different social media, for example X, formerly known as Twitter. Sometimes a tool is no longer useful, but another one comes along,” she adds.

She cited reverse photo search as an excellent tool. “Anyone can do this by uploading an image or video to search engines such as Google, Yandex or Baidu. The Invid-WeVerify verification plugin, jointly developed by AFP, is also a very simple and effective way to verify whether an image is shared online with a false or misleading claim,” Péard explained.

The danger of AI-generated fake content

She says that AFP most often comes across false information in topics about health, climate change, the war in Ukraine or elections, and in particular about COVID-19.

“Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have seen numerous online accounts promoting fake medicines and confirming many false claims about COVID and vaccines against this disease.”

It is important not to allow disinformation to spread falsehoods and endanger people’s lives and health, Péard points out.

She adds that their Croatian blog recently published a story explaining that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has not changed its position and that it still does not recommend ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19.

The most important thing is to help Internet users get the right facts about these important topics, concludes Péard, who sees artificial intelligence-generated content with false or misleading claims as a major future challenge for all fact checkers.