This article documents the efforts of fact-checking by StopFake, a volunteer organisation, as a counter-propaganda fight against fake news. The organisation was founded by young Ukrainian journalists in March 2014. In this article, the researchers documents the history of StopFake, describe its work practices and contextualise them within the literatures on fact checking and online news practices.
Highlights:
- The research finds that the activities of StopFake reflect the power, and the constraints of journalistic activism against well-organised fake news groups.
- The exploration of the workings of StopFake demonstrate that "fake news" can be curbed when there is a careful editorial process grounded in media literacy techniques.
- The study merely documents the work practices of StopFake rather than assess its effectiveness. Further research would be required to judge the reach of the organisation's peer-to-peer propaganda and how applicable its model might be in other contexts.