Riffy Bol
@riffy
Algemeen redacteur @decorrespondent.nl
Crowdsourced, professionally rated fact-checks under the banner of "La Buloteca" resulted in +15% response capacity, +73% growth in website visits, +80% active users, explains @maldita.es CEO @cjimenezcruz.bsky.social (Spain). 200-300 queries on average day, ~5,000 during emergencies or elections.
"Binary conversations" – [Russian massacre in] Bucha "happened or didn't happen" – are not productive to reach shared reality, says Emir Zulejhić, program director at Zašto ne. In Bosnia, there's "huge asymmetry of scale and emotions" about past events. "Only solution I can think of is education."
Reliability of answers you get from AI chatbots depend on subject, language and even your location, concludes Kosovan researcher Hyrije Mehmeti (hibrid.info). Based on 30+ neutral prompts, Russian chatbot Alice refused to answer on Crimea in 4 countries. hibrid.info/en/istina-iz... #GlobalFact
From 1940 until 1991, the Baltic states were annexed territories (by the Soviet Union and briefly by Nazi Germany). "Living in an occupied country gives you transgenerational trauma, total distrust in government", says Lithuanian minister of Health, Marija Jakubauskienė. #GlobalFact #Vilnius
Enlightening session on non-Western perspectives on fact-checking, by @teyit.org's Emircan Saç (Turkey) and Masato Kajimoto (University of Hong Kong). State-controlled fact-checking is rampant in Global South, e.g. Brazil, China, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam. #GlobalFact #Vilnius
Many Hungarian journalists have "forgotten how to operate" in normal country, says @szabolcspanyi.bsky.social of @vsquare.bsky.social. "Quite surreal to look back at 16 years [under Orbán]." Magyar bill to reform public broadcaster looks "okay", there will be independent oversight, expert community
"Historically, Russia has used Baltic states as a testing ground for cyber attacks, election meddling, propaganda", says @holgerroonemaa.bsky.social (Delfi Estonia). More about Russia's 2007 cyber attacks on Estonia in Oliver Moody's book "Baltic" or this NATO paper: stratcomcoe.org/cuploads/pfi...
"The process is the punishment", says @ninajankowicz.com of @americansunlight.org. If you become the subject of a politicized investigation, don't simply comply and hope it goes away. "Make them subpoena you, release your own correspondence with them, demand a public hearing." #GlobalFact #Vilnius
By establishing so-called Official Response Office, the Argentinian state has become a "center player" in the digital information ecosystem, says @chequeado.com media director Matías Di Santi. Government thus "moves into territory of journalists, researchers, independent fact-checkers". #GlobalFact
Hostile US rhetoric on migration and foreign aid also affects Western Balkans and parts of Africa, say @africacheck.org's Valdez Onanina and Zašto ne's Tijana Cvjetićanin. Supporters of Great Replacement theory in Balkan region "feel empowered" by current American attitude to migration. #GlobalFact
Attending #GlobalFact for the fourth time. After Rome (2018), Oslo (2022) and Sarajevo (2024), hundreds of fact-checkers from all over the world have now gathered in the Lithuanian capital #Vilnius
"Fact-checks produce 20% more audience traffic [than regular articles], cost 10% [of editorial revenue] to produce, high ROI" — @gigafactproject.bsky.social founder Chandran Sankaran, based on working with 23 American newsrooms #GlobalFact #Vilnius
On average, sustainable European media (n=20) receive 70% of revenue directly from audience, says @erdelyip.bsky.social (Center for Sustainable Media). (To compare, my employer @decorrespondent.nl gets 67% revenue from subscriptions, 28% from books, 3% donations) decorrespondent.nl/15999/zo-bes...
"You don't need to have boots on the ground to occupy country, minds of civilians" —Ieva Gajauskaitė, Total Defence and Crisis Management Group, Lithuanian Ministry of National Defence #GlobalFact #Vilnius
We're in the age of "cognitive warfare", says Lithuanian Minister of National Defence, Robertas Kaunas, as real as "land, sea, air" defense. "An enemy who cannot make you panic has lost his best weapon." #GlobalFact #Vilnius
Dan ook graag nieuwe geografische aanduidingen voor de Verenigde Staten, die nog veel gedateerder zijn
Het voelt als voorrecht dat ik het staartje van @powerunlimited.bsky.social's gouden jaren nog heb mogen meemaken. Meerdere keren de brievenrubriek gehaald, allerlei prijsvragen gewonnen, een bezoek aan de redactiezolder in Haarlem-Oost, als introvert broekie van net 18 op de foto met Jan Meijroos.
Sad news: @meduza.io's Eurasia newsletter The Beet will be pausing as of Jan '26. Learned a lot from the articles about a systematically underrepresented part of the world and have only become more curious about Eastern Europe and the Caucasus. Thank you for all the stories @eilishhart.bsky.social
Literatuuronderzoek suggereert dat zelfverdedigingsmiddelen voor OV-personeel lang niet de beste oplossing zijn www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...