False information has increased exponentially on various social media platforms especially with the upcoming national election on 9 May 2022. For many Filipinos, social media has become their primary source of news. As the cyber campus of the University of the Philippines (UP), the UP Open University (UPOU) has united with Tsek.ph to make sure that misinformation and disinformation circulating the online highways are fact-checked.
Tsek.ph is a collaborative fact-checking project for the 2022 Philippines’ election. It verifies and fact-checks “platforms and campaign promises of candidates, Election-related statements and remarks made by candidates, personalities, government agencies, and other entities; and Election-related posts on social media, blogs and other platforms.”
UP Open University is also an advocate of stopping fake news and all types of misinformation, disinformation and mal-information. Early in 2021, UPOU featured media literacy in an episode of the Open Talk, UPOU’s public service program broadcasted real-time over the UPOU Networks website and UPOU Networks Facebook page.
UPOU also has a project with the Human Rights Violations Victims Memorial Commission (HRVVMC) and the Bantayog ng mga Bayani Foundation where an online course on Wikipedia Editing and Fighting Historical Distortion was developed and offered for free.
UPOU is also lining up a couple of activities to contribute to this initiative. The UPOU Office of Public Affairs (OPA), in collaboration with other offices, is organizing a series of webinars with the aim of helping Filipinos be wary of unverified information online and be able to vote for future leaders wisely.
UPOU is joined by more than 30 other institutions and organizations in this project with Tsek.ph. Tsek.ph is also supported by the University of the Philippines, Google News Initiative, Rakuten Viber, UP Diliman Department of Journalism and UP College of Mass Communication Foundation.
Written by Anna Cañas-Llamas
Edited by Joane V. Serrano
#UPOpenUniversity
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