Fact-checking the media watchers

RMIT FactLab and RMIT ABC Fact Check director Russell Skelton. Picture: Supplied

RMIT FactLab is under much-needed scrutiny for its overreach as a fact-check gatekeeper in important community debate. Under pressure for its repeated interventions into the voice to parliament referendum debate, RMIT FactLab has been caught out quietly deleting earlier determinations and acting without the necessary approvals.

The group is now facing legal action after it was shown to be giving fact-check decisions for Facebook without a current International Fact-Checking Network certification. Sky News Australia is demanding the retraction of false fact-checking verdicts on the TV channel’s online content and reimbursement for lost revenue. Lawyers for Sky News have listed at least five fact checks published since December last year – four relating to voice referendum content – that claim Sky News’ content is false. The fact checks were issued after RMIT’s IFCN certification had expired on December 2 last year. To issue fact-checking verdicts, RMIT FactLab must hold a valid IFCN certification as part of its agreement with social media giant and Facebook owner Meta. Meta has suspended its partnership with RMIT FactLab because of the lapsed IFCN certification status and concerns of bias in relation to fact checks done on voice debate content.

Concerns about the RMIT unit are heightened by the social media posts of some its fact checkers that display a clear bias on political and social issues on which the fact-check unit is making public declarations. In one post, Liberal leader Peter Dutton was called a “fearmongering racist”. The group has silently deleted a fact check that claimed it was false to question a statistic that alleged 83 per cent of Indigenous Australians supported the voice.

By operating a fact-check unit, RMIT has set itself up for greater scrutiny. Fact-check results are being presented as more than an option. They are a commercial arrangement that carries greater responsibility. The rise of media policing by bureaucratic and for-profit academic organisations is a trend that must be scrutinised closely. Someone must watch the watcher.