By Precious D Freeman
The iLab Liberia, along with its development partners, has launched Liberia’s first dedicated fact-checking website to counter disinformation.
Speaking at the launch of the website, the Country Director for iLab Liberia, Albert G. Luogon, said that the unveiling of this website is a major milestone for iLab and partners, because it gives them confidence that together they can defeat the menace called disinformation, and improve the information environment in the society.
He explained that in April this year, iLab signed a 14-month sub-grant contract with one of its development partners, the National Democratic Institute (NDI), to implement the Countering Disinformation in Liberia 2023 election project.
“The project, which is expected to be rolled out beyond the 2023 general elections, is also funded by one of its partners, the Government of Canada,” he said.
Mr. Luogon furthered that the website serves as a premium platform for citizens in Nimba, Montserrado, and other parts of the country to get firsthand factual information about the 2023 Presidential and Legislative elections.
He sustained that throughout the lifespan of this website, Liberians will have access to corrected and verified versions of fake news, and or misleading information that is being spread to the public on the radio, social media, internet, and across communities in the two aforementioned counties, adding that the website also has comment and suggestion columns for the public to make input about its contents.
The iLab Liberia Country Director explained that Fact-check Liberia’s official inauguration serves as an important milestone in the implementation of the Countering Disinformation in Liberia 2023 election project, which is aimed at improving Liberia’s information environment by making citizens aware of the harms and dangers of disinformation in the elections, and how to mitigate its impact on the society.
“Its overall goal is to ensure information integrity in the country’s electoral and democratic systems, ensuring Liberians have a democratic process void of misinformation and disinformation and violent free elections,” he said.
He emphasized that the project is being piloted for 14 months in Montserrado and Nimba counties, adding that its partners are hoping to achieve the project’s objectives by engaging stakeholders in roundtable discussions, creating mass citizens’ awareness, conducting fact-check training, establishing stakeholders’ networks, and routinely fact-checking claims and reporting verified content on the website.
“Today’s unveiling of the website is one of several important phases of the project that iLab and its partners have implemented since March 2023. In the last six months, we have carried out stakeholder engagement meetings in Nimba and Montserrado counties, with positive feedback,” he said.
He continued that there have been Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), disinformation awareness workshops, and fact-check training in Montserrado. “Stakeholders who have participated in these activities have already learned how to effectively identify influencers of disinformation and misinformation, their mediums, tactics, and targeted audience; they have also learned how to track online hate speeches and violence against women in politics.”
“We also hosted and participated in a study mission during the Sierra Leone elections and hosted the first regional conference confronting disinformation and hate speech in Monrovia. The conference brought together civil society organizations countering disinformation across Africa, and they collectively discussed methods and approaches used to address contextual disinformation issues on the continent,” he said.
iLab Liberia is a non-profit local tech hub that provides access to information, open and geospatial data, research, web technologies, and expert ICT assistance, through a community of volunteers leveraging technology for the good of Liberia.
iLab Liberia was founded in 2021, it has developed local solutions through global standards, while serving partners ranging from government, private sector, and development actors.
This civil tech innovative enterprise supports development actors, civil society organizations, and local businesses by integrating tech to enhance their services, work closely with the Government on technology initiatives that promote access to information, peace, security, elections, health emergencies, open governance, climate change, research, and data collection, while developing platforms and systems for anti-corruption, accountability, and the rule of law.
Since its establishment, iLab Liberia has built the capacity of hundreds of Liberian youths, some of whom have been gainfully employed with private and public institutions.
Meanwhile, with the launching of this website, the iLab Liberia Country Director is encouraging the public to click this link www.factcheckliberia.info to access factual, credible, reliable, and verified information about the 2023 Presidential and Legislative elections.
He informed the citizens that by following this simple instruction, it will help the country a lot by telling others about how to dispel misinformation and disinformation in the elections, and society in general.
