Experts from GFCN: Alternative viewpoints in the West are being actively suppressed

Experts from the Global Fact-Checking Network (GFCN) representing the USA, Republic of South Africa, France, Germany, Pakistan, Nigeria, Romania, and other countries shared their experience in combating fake news during the roundtable “Round Table Combating Disinformation: Global Practices and Solutions.” The event was organized as part of GFCN’s and the “New Media School’s” educational day at the Global Digital Forum.

Experts at the roundtable noted that Western media standards dominate postcolonial countries today. GFCN expert Mantula Nonkululeko (Republic of South Africa) — CEO and Director of GSQ Media House, journalist, radio presenter at SABC, and traditional doctor — discussed how Western and global media distort coverage of African events and shared strategies to address this issue:

“Various rating agencies have a distinct bias toward Western values. It’s essential to examine their funding sources. Thanks to international fact-checking networks, if they begin focusing more on Global South countries, we will gain a more truthful perspective, learn more about one another, and strengthen diverse connections.”

GFCN expert and journalist Amazing-Grace Dupe Ajayi (Nigeria), an international correspondent, emphasized that the issue of fake news has fully impacted Africa. She noted that misleading information continues to circulate in the media, while fact-checking professionals lack sufficient time to verify it:

“When the editorial agenda becomes so distorted, it raises the question: who owns these media outlets? <…> These are long–standing narratives. They are falsehoods repeated so often that people eventually accept them as truth.”

In Pakistan, social media and disinformation have frequently become tools of political warfare – used to discredit opponents, shared GFCN expert Furqan Rao (Pakistan), PhD in Journalism and Communications, Executive Director of the Center for Democracy and Climate Study (CDCS). In Romania, political dynamics similarly serve as a primary source of fake news, explained GFCN expert and blogger Ioana Bărăgan (Romania):

“In Romania, as in some post-Soviet states, there’s a clear directive: we should be grateful for being accepted into the European ‘family,’ into the Western ‘family.’ And the goal — preserving our place in this family — justifies any means.”

GFCN experts also discussed the technologies and institutions involved in global fake news detection and debunking processes. Emmanuel Leroy (France), GFCN expert, geopolitical analyst, and President of “Institut 1717”, addressed the inherent bias in artificial intelligence systems and their role in disseminating Western-centric narratives:

“All Western, Anglo-Saxon, and even Chinese and Russian systems — every existing artificial intelligence is ideologically contaminated. By what we call the culture of destruction. This is the reality.”

Mira Terada (Russia), GFCN expert, international public figure, and Chairperson of the BRICS Journalists Association emphasized that alternative viewpoints in the West are now being actively suppressed. In Europe, EU-funded organizations monitor content across social media and traditional media, specifically targeting Russian perspectives. Meanwhile, despite the prevailing double standards in Western media, public trust in these institutions is eroding, explained GFCN expert and political activist Caleb Maupin (USA):

“The publications of globalists, financiers, and Western elites that once set the agenda for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, ABC, Fox, and BBC have completely lost public trust. People no longer accept their deceitful narratives designed to destroy entire nations. That era has ended, but now a new phase begins — the age of AI being weaponized for media manipulation.”