TelevisaUnivision Introduces Fact-Checking Partnership With Meta

Today, TelevisaUnivision said that Univision Noticias’ fact-checking program, elDetector, will partner with Meta and join its International Fact-Checking Network’s (IFCN) Third Party Fact-Checking Program, becoming one of six fact-checking organizations that cover content in Spanish-language within the program.

Users can access elDetector’s services via the Univision Noticias website to find checked information about politics, health, and general affairs, from Covid-19 and vaccines to U.S. elections and the war in Ukraine. It also clarifies fake news and conspiracy theories, which will help users clear through the clutter of disinformation and misinformation. Spanish speakers can also ask questions directly to the news-checking team by sending text messages via WhatsApp to the number 1-786-685-8284. elDetector aims to fulfill Univision Noticias’ journalistic mission of seeking truth and challenging public discourse in the United States and Latin America.

“With elDetector being the first-fact checking platform available in Spanish for the United States, our partnership with Meta will expand our reach in ensuring that Hispanic audiences receive accurate and reliable information,” said Carlos Chirinos, director of elDetector.

“This partnership emphasizes Univision Noticias’ core value of ensuring that Hispanic audiences are accurately informed and can rely on a news division to enforce their equitable access to correct and trustworthy information,” added José Gonzalo, senior director and editor in chief of Univision Noticias Digital.

“We’re thrilled to welcome TelevisaUnivision into our global fact-checking program,” said Kaitlin McCulley, news integrity program manager at Meta. “We partner with more than 90 fact-checking organizations around the world who review and rate viral misinformation on our platform and we’re excited to build on our previous partnerships with TelevisaUnivision to help connect Spanish-speaking audiences in the U.S. with reliable information.”

Journalists operate elDetector from the newsroom of Univision Noticias with additional support from external collaborators: fact checkers who have no affiliation with any political party and are governed by journalistic ethical principles and IFCN’s code of regulations. The fact-checking platform offers an analysis of public discourse and what public-facing figures say, as well as information relevant for decision-making in the Hispanic community, including images from photos and videos relevant to understanding these events.

As part of Univision Noticias, elDetector was launched in 2016 as the first fact-checking platform in Spanish in the United States. It was later relaunched, during the 2020 presidential campaign, with support from WhatsApp and coordination by the IFCN, from the Poynter Institute, as part of the FactChat project, which brought together 12 fact-checking platforms in the United States.

In addition to this partnership, elDetector has sponsorships from Meta through the International Fact-Checking Network to do climate change checks and from WhatsApp to operate the chatbot.