Africa Check Trains Roundcheck Volunteers On Fact-checking To Boost The Fight Against False Information

RoundCheck, an independent fact-checking platform invited Africa Check, the first independent fact-checking organization in Africa to train its volunteers on Thursday in a 1-day virtual training.

Recall that on February 16, Roundcheck through its website invited the public, majorly youths to be part of their Volunteers network in Nigeria.

The sessions were handled by Mrs. Carina Van Wyk, Head of Education and Training, Mrs. Aniesha Bulbulia, Operations Manager, and Mr. Allwell Okpi, Researcher and Community Manager at Africa Check. The training covered understanding misinformation and disinformation, tips for identifying false news, and online tools for verifying images and videos.

During the interactive session, Mrs. Carina explained why people need accurate information, noting that news can be life-threatening. 

“We should check it out when we doubt a particular report,” she said. 

At the end of the training, participants received the tools and techniques they can use to identify and verify claims.

Commenting on the training, Caleb Ijioma, the Executive Director at Roundcheck appreciated the effort Africa Check is putting to combat false information. He assured the participants of receiving the necessary help and mentorship needed to boost their passion for fact-checking. 

“As a youth-led growing organization, we will be spreading our tentacles and giving our members the needed skills and experience to make them readily available to contribute to the fight against false information.”

Finally, he said he looks forward to more collaborations with Africa Check to expand the training and support what Roundcheck is doing in Nigeria.