Facebook has agreed to reinstate RMIT FactLab to its factchecking program two months after it was suspended in the wake of repeated complaints by Sky News Australia about the key factchecker’s debunking of claims by the no campaign about the voice.
No voice campaigners – including Sky host Peta Credlin, Liberal senator James Paterson and the right-wing thinktank the IPA – claimed RMIT FactLab was biased and demanded Facebook remove it from its program which aims to tackle online misinformation.
Meta suspended RMIT Fact Lab from the program, blaming the lack of accreditation by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), which had lapsed, and the upcoming referendum, as well as complaints from Sky News. The third-party fact checking program Meta runs with Australian media outlets AAP and AFP continued.
Over the weekend the IFCN restored the accreditation, finding that RMIT meets the criteria to be fully compliant with international factchecking principles.
“RMIT FactLab also provides a platform for interdisciplinary research into online misinformation and disinformation, including the impact of new technologies such as artificial intelligence on the digital news ecosystem,” IFCN said.
“It also provides factchecking education and training to school pupils, university students, factcheckers, journalists and civil society groups.”
A spokesperson for Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, told Guardian Australia the RMIT Fact Lab program will be restored.
“Following its review, the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) has re-certified RMIT FactLab as a third-party factchecker and an active signatory to the IFCN Code of Principles,” a spokesperson said. “Given this decision, Meta will reinstate RMIT FactLab to its third-party factchecking program pending completion of our partner onboarding process.”
Meta said it had deferred complaints made by Sky News Australia to IFCN, indicating the platform would not be investigating the allegations.
The director of RMIT FactLab Russell Skelton said: “As a founding member of the IFCN when it was first convened in London, I never doubted that FactLab’s signatory status with the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) would not be renewed unanimously by the advisory board.
“I look forward to continuing FactLab’s close relationship with the IFCN in the fight against misinformation and disinformation.
“This is most welcome news as it also vindicates the high standards FactLab has always adhered to when striving to better inform the public as part of the META program.”
Before the suspension, Sky News claimed that the RMIT team “was responsible for several misleading fact checks against Sky News Australia which led to a censorship of journalism related to the voice referendum”.
Credlin’s claim that the Uluru Statement is a 26-page document and not a one-page document was found to be false information by RMIT FactLab. The finding led to Credlin’s editorial being removed from the platform, infuriating News Corp Australia which threatened legal action against FactLab for allegedly providing “misleading” information under Australian Consumer Law.
Paterson wrote to Meta to request the social media platform review all previous fact checks done by the RMIT’s FactLab and release the findings publicly.
“RMIT FactLab stands by the accuracy of its work to date and remains dedicated to slowing the spread of viral misinformation and disinformation through its fact checks,” a spokesperson said in September.
The Australian and Sky News targeted RMIT FactLab and its director, the former Age journalist Skelton. Sky News published a 6,000-word “exposé”, The Fact Check Files, which alleged there was a campaign of “foreign-funded censorship” of Murdoch journalists involving Facebook and factcheckers. The foreign funding claim appears to refer to the fact that Facebook’s international headquarters are in Ireland.
“The university used the powers Facebook has given it to throttle Sky News Australia’s Facebook page with false fact checks multiple times this year,” the article said.
RMIT launched a fact check unit in partnership with the ABC in 2017 after the ABC Fact Check unit was axed in the wake of Coalition budget cuts.
RMIT FactLab was launched during Covid when it was set up as a research hub to track trace and debunk misinformation online.
RMIT ABC Fact Check stands alone from FactLab and is a separate partnership with the ABC with a disparate staff.
