Google Disbursed IDR 18.7 Billion In Funds To Cek Fakta Ahead Of The 2024 General Election

Google disbursed Rp18.7 billion in funds to fight hoaxes and misinformation ahead of the 2023 General Election (photo: Cek Fakta)

JAKARTA - A few days ago at the Google for Indonesia event, Google announced that it would provide funding of 1.2 million US dollars (Rp 18.7 billion) to Cek Fakta and the GNI Indonesia Training Network, to equip more editors, journalists and fact check with the skills and tools they need ahead of the 2024 General Election.

Flashback Cek FACT

Checkfacts.com was first introduced in 2018 at the Trusted Media Summit in June in Jakarta. Then, ahead of the 2019 election with 24 news agency partners, Cekfact.com was officially launched as a fact-checking and verification collaboration project jointly formed with the Google News Initiative, the Indonesian Cyber Media Association, Indonesian Anti-STate Society, Alliance of Independent Journalists.

In 2020, Cekfact.com expanded its network to 21 provinces to anticipate regional head elections in December. The following year, Pulih Foundation, Dart Center Asia Pacific, GNI Indonesia Training Network and Check Facts continued research on the traumas experienced by journalists during the pandemic, in an effort to help their mental health.

In February this year, the GNI provided additional support of US$815 thousand (Rp12 billion) to expand its work reach across the country to 35 organizations.

Future Check FACT

As explained earlier, in 2023, Google provided an additional commitment of 1.2 million US dollars (Rp 18.7 billion) to develop a coalition into 300 news organizations and train thousands of journalists and fact-checkers throughout Indonesia ahead of the 2024 General Election.

In collaboration with Cek Fakta, Google's Jidaya team plans to bring its innovative research and campaign to Indonesia, the first in Southeast Asia, while bringing in the latest innovative techniques to "prevent" the public from disinformation even before they see it.