In early April, Russia’s Foreign Ministry unveiled Global fact-checking network ,
The initiative was presented earlier “Dialogue about Fake 2.0” Forum in Moscow in November 2024. In a press briefing after the April announcement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova GFCN was implicated as a counter, which he called West “Tireless stream of fake stories and disintegration campaigns,“Funding pseudo-tatha-zancha, accusing the Western fact-checks of being attached. ,
“This global citizen initiative,” Zakharova said, “We will be able to combat devastating Western action using our own creative agenda.”
But find installed facts-find sites Factor And Malta GFCN’s Kremlin-Nagged Backers, opaque operations, and red flags are placed on one-way stories.
The DW Fact Czech keeps a close eye.
Who is behind GFCN?
GFCN was co-established by Tass, Russia’s state-driven news agency, and autonomous non-profit organization ANO dialogue, known for close relationships between Kremlin.
Toss What suspended On concerns about its editorial freedom by the European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA) in 2022. In 2023, the European Union approved its role for spreading the ANO dialogue disintegration and the operation of the Pro-Cremlin website on Fake.
Next to the 2024 presidential election in Russia, the US Treasury approved the group under the Executive Order 14024, targeting individuals and institutions associated with the Russian government.
Does GFCN meet global facts-zone standards?
Independent fact-zancha depends on transparency, verification of source and open functioning.
Search as a major organization International Facts-IFCN Fact-stripping is required to cite public data and provide transparent methods that others may repeat.
DW reviewed several GFCN articles and found frequent problems with sourcing and functioning.
Title in an article “Romanian elections: How to win West only in second attempt?”The author cites 2024 eurobarometer, claiming that only 22% of Romanians provide assistance to refugees, only 14% return the actions of the European Union on Ukraine, and only 13% of the Ukraine’s European Union candidate.
But thesis figures are false. DW cross-check the data and found a high level of Romanian support for European Union policies in Ukraine 2024 Eurobarometer,Opposing the main claim of the article.
Another piece It is alleged that the “shadow organizer” was behind the Soros family “Stay away!” Protests against US President Donald Trump’s second administration, which took place across the United States on 5 April 2025. The article argued that, since some Orhaizers received the grant from the foundation of the open society, the Soros family should protest.
this is confusing. The piece focuses narrowly on two groups – go ahead And Prime – And ignores the broad alliance behind the rallies. While both organizations have actually received funds from the foundation of the open society, the grant has supported general programming, not especially in protest of April 5. In addition, thesis groups list dozens of funds, not just a soros-supported foundation.
Getting support from the foundation of the Open Society does not prove direct participation from the Soros family, whose philanthropic work has long been targeted by the theorists of the conspiracy. Thesis stories often portray Soros as a puppet master Bang protest, migration, or claims of global unkest – which is widely maligned.
Another GFCN article titled “Is the chatter prone to Russian propagation?”The seriously fails to engage with that question. Instead, it defends most of its word count and attacks a Norwegian media outlet, which questioned the realization of the Russian agency.
The article recently mentions the investigation – Find a report from the newsgard, which was covered by DW – which Russian attempted to manipulate generative AI platforms. The only conclusion of the piece appears in the final paragraph, which vaguely states: “Chatbot is wrong to give human quality and to ‘like’ one of the sources’.”
GFCN: Who is writing the thesis stories?
An contributor in GFCN is Sonja Van Dane Ende, a Dutch journalist living in Russia, embedded with Russian soldiers in Ukraine. Some Dutch Media He is described as a conspiracy theorist. On X, He recently posted: “Germany is a country of knives, which used to be a country of beer and bratvorst, now a radical rebel from refugee seekers, ie Syria, Iraq, etc.”.
Other GFCN contributors include Tim Anderson, directors of the Center for Counter Hegmonic Studies. Hey called The massacre of the Ukrainian citizens in Bucha carried out a “scam” and claimed that the invasion of Russia’s Ukraine did not include the goal of a civil infrastructure.
A familiar Russian playbook: copying and confusing
Observers say GFCN’s name – just one letter removed from IFCN – is not an accident.
The International Fact-Zone Network established by The Pointer Institute in 2015, is a respected union of more than 150 independent facts worldwide. It trains journalists, applies professional standards, and proves outlets on the basis of transparency and editorial freedom.
On the other hand, GFCN follows a long-standing strategy of the Russian state: imitating legitimate institutions to stain the line between journalism and publicity.
“We do not consider their activities with professional facts-zoology ecosystems, citing the frequent repression of Russia’s independent journalism, IFCN director Angie Drobic Hollen.
“Professional facts require the ability to verify the claims independently in the political spectrum,” she said. “Journalists must be free to find the government’s contradiction. We are highly suspicious that this effort allows it for it.”
Tomaso Kineta, a policy officer of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO), called GFCN a classic case of political appropriation.
“This is a strategy that we have seen many times; like ‘fact-checking’, such as, such as ‘,’, the conditions of the cum-pet, and separate them from the meaning,” he explained. “Political actors often label the biased story as ‘Fact Czech’ when they are not clearly.”
He insisted that IFCN or European fact-tails help with a network such as the standard network (EFCSN) helps to separate legitimate outlets from people engaged in manipulation.
“Without search standards, we end up with the initiative – such as from Russia – which pollutes the word and manals water.”
This article was written and edited by the DW Fact Czech team.
Correction, June 4, 2025: In the earlier version of this article, the ANO dialogue was referred to as the AnPO dialogue area. DW waiver for error.
