Fact-Checking Organizations Bolster Budgets and Expand Reach in 2022, New Report Shows

Fact-checking organizations have ramped up their budgets and broadened their scope in 2022, marking a critical shift in combating misinformation, according to a report by the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter.

The 2022 State of the Fact-Checkers Report analyzed data from 93 verified signatories of the IFCN and found that a greater proportion of organizations had heftier financial resources to address misinformation more effectively. The study reveals that 24.7 percent of organizations now operate with budgets exceeding $500,000, while those with budgets up to $20,000 dropped to 9.7 percent

The report showcases how fact-checking organizations have broadened their horizons to confront misinformation across a diverse range of public interest topics that surpass their initial areas of proficiency. It discloses that 94.6 percent of these organizations address political and social concerns, 88.2 percent evaluate economic claims, and 96.8 percent expose the fallacies of health misinformation.

Fact-checking organizations primarily rely on the Third Party Fact-Checking Program by Meta, which contributes 45.2% of their total income. Grants account for 29% of funding, while donations or membership subscriptions make up 6.5%. In 2022, TikTok emerged as a novel funding source for several organizations through a fact-checking collaboration.

The report stressed the importance of fact-checking organizations diversifying their funding sources and reducing dependence on major technology grants, recommending that fact-checkers expand their partnerships with a diverse range of entities, including tech companies, platforms, stakeholders, academic institutions, and media organizations, in order to obtain more resources and benefit from their collective expertise.

Despite the budget cuts and workforce reductions at prominent technology firms, major tech companies such as Meta and Google have not reduced their partnerships or grants to fact-checking organizations. However, the report indicates that if this trend persists, it may lead to a shift in the landscape of fact-checking and reduce budgets for countering misinformation. Fact-checking organizations that heavily rely on revenue from partnerships with these industry leaders may need to make significant changes to adapt.