The Chinese fact checkers taking on the Covid infodemic – a rumour at a time

Journalist Wei Xing started up China Fact Check two years ago to push back against the flood of misinformation about the coronavirus

The group has survived and thrived through the efforts of volunteers and knowing how not to cross ‘red lines’

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Months into the coronavirus pandemic, the internet in China was awash with fake international news about the disease. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 12:00pm, 26 Jun 2022Updated: 5:14pm, 26 Jun 2022

In early 2020, just months into the coronavirus pandemic, the internet in China was flooded with fake international news about the disease.

Blogs and internet chat groups were awash with rumours such as Covid-19 patients in the United States were killing themselves en masse and Russia’s health minister had confirmed that Sars-CoV-2 was a synthetic virus.

“Even some of my family, friends and colleagues kept sharing rumours about the Covid-19 situation in other countries. It was outrageous,” 42-year-old Shanghai-based journalist Wei Xing said.

Wei, who co-founded online magazine Sixth Tone and has worked for various media organisations, was appalled and decided to fight back, teaming up with dozens of volunteers to launch independent non-profit China Fact Check in August that year.

The group targeted international “news” on mainland Chinese social networks, hoping to stop misinformation before it could really take hold.

Two years later, China Fact Check has become the biggest of its kind in China, publishing more than 500 reports on topics ranging from the pandemic to the US election to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It survives by walking a fine political line, attracting advertising and harnessing the power of dedicated volunteers.