TFC＇s Editor in Chief shared Taiwan fact-checking experience in CMF＇s Fact-Check Week Event

Hui-An Ho

Summer Chen, the Editor in Chief at Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) was invited to speak at the global fact-check network webinar session on April 7 during the Fact-Check Week Event hosted by the Community Media Foundation (CMF). 

In the session, Summer Chen, along with Lim Dong-jun, the activist from Korean Fact Checknet, and Dr. Alexandra Siddall, Australia’s Deputy Head of Mission at the Australian Embassy to South Korea, shared the fact-checking situation, efforts, and challenges in their own countries.

To show how TFC adheres to the highest standard of accessing evidence, Summer shared how her team debunked a viral post that claimed that Taiwan’s representative to the US lied about being invited to US president Biden’s inauguration. 

Summer also highlighted the importance of a strong defense frontline against misinformation built out by civil society. One of the core missions of TFC is to empower the public with media literacy and verification trainings. 

TFC hosts every year more than 20 workshops in schools and local communities to introduce fact-checking tools and skills. Teachers from schools and universities are among the participants and help to further spread the knowledge. 

“Last year we conducted a very interesting experiment,” Summer said. TFC gave training to a group of mobile phone instructors who are specialized in teaching senior citizens to use a  mobile phone. 

After the training, as seed teachers, these instructors then integrated the skills they acquired from TFC into their courses for the elderly. For instance, they brought awareness of the unverified message to their elderly students and teach them how to use Google Lens to reverse search images.

You can find the complete session here: https://youtu.be/k2J6d6AyXD8