Monrovia, Liberia- The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) on Monday, April 8, handed over the iVerify Platform to Local Voices Liberia with a strong call to ensure national ownership and sustainability. The tool is designed for quick fact-checking and verification of published information.
“iVerify effectively helped address the challenges of misinformation and disinformation during the 2023 elections using the iVerify platform,” said Lenka Homolkova, UNDP Chief Technical Advisor of the Liberia Electoral Support Project (LESP)
Homolkova noted that debunking fake news and misinformation contributes to increasing accountability and trust in the media and contributes to the democratic processes.
“It is a tool which is getting more and more attention in elections. In Sierra Leone and Liberia, it is acknowledged and seen as contributing to election integrity. When content was flagged as false by Local voices, it was taken down from social media. I saw these instances during the elections. And iVerify is a good tool because nobody wants to be seen as lying or spreading false information. So, flagging false content helped during the 2023 general elections,” CTA Homolkova said.
The iVerify system, supported by UNDP and partners- Sweden, Ireland, and the European Union supported national stakeholders in identifying and mitigating issues relating to hate speech and mis/disinformation in the 2023 general elections in Liberia.
Citizens and external partners used the platform utilizing available tip lines to identify and report disinformation, misinformation, and hate speech. The system then analyses or fact-checks the content through a 3-step verification process.
CTA Homolkova recounted that UNDP and partners also supported Local Voices in training fact-checkers, spreading awareness about the tool, and how people can report issues of misinformation/disinformation and refer them to local voices for fact-checking.
She called for enhanced collaboration between Local Voices and national and international actors, including the National Elections Commission and the media to combat misinformation and disinformation.
Homolkova extolled UNDP partners Sweden, Ireland, the EU, and Internews for the support to the iVerify initiative.
Lien Bach, Chief of Party of Internews, said the introduction of iVerify in Liberia was grounded in the idea of promoting responsible and factual dissemination of information.
“iVerify effectively provided the tool for robust verification and clarification of information during the elections. Combating dis/misinformation and hate speech should be a continuous campaign,” she demanded.
“Before iVerify, we relied on normal media monitoring, which was challenging. We had to manually follow all the different Facebook pages and newspapers,” he said. Senkpeni appealed for continuous support to keep the platform operational.
“We need funding to keep this work going. We cannot just have fact-checking in elections here. Elections are periodic events. We need to continue fast-checking even after the elections. We are happy that we have this platform. We have built the foundation. We need support to consistently sustain these efforts or else all the gains will be reversed,” he added.
During the elections, iVerify tracked 219 claims of disinformation, misinformation, and hate speech using the system (WhatsApp tipline) and other claims tracking mechanisms. Local Voices fact-checked and published 51 fact-check reports and conducted training for journalists and mobile fact-checkers on the use of the iVerify tool. Local Voices also produced a weekly radio program on OK FM to promote the iVerify system and counter election disinformation.