This Nigerian media outlet pushes for justice around banking issues

Ahead of Nigeria’s general election, a group of 12 media platforms and civil society organizations worked together as the Nigeria Factcheckers Coalition to debunk false information targeting voters. The coalition, which provided training and tools to participating journalists, fact-checked 127 during the week of the elections.

CekFakta is a collaborative network that fights misinformation with around 6,000 fact-checkers from major Indonesian media organizations, citizens, and academics. The group holds training sessions to help journalists identify doctored images and misinformation, with the idea that participants will pass the skills on to their colleagues. CekFakta impacted 2019 presidential debates with large-scale, real-time, collaborative fact-checking that enabled a quick release of fact-checked information. The collaborative process is key to helping people find high-quality information amid so much online content.

Cyber security simulations are taking place across the country to help everyone, from government officials to journalists, to identify election-related cyber threats and coordinated disinformation campaigns and make plans to strengthen defenses against them. One company, Cybereason, holds simulation events, sometimes bringing together law enforcement officers from agencies including the Secret Service and FBI, to think through potential security threats and come up with corresponding solutions. Running through security breach simulations helps plan for a quick response to deal with the challenges.

Citizen watchdogs can hold local police accountable by using the tactics of investigative reporters that have successfully exposed systemic problems and sparked reforms. One reporter shares five approaches he’s used to hold up policies and practices to scrutiny, some of which led to positive change. He provides a how-to on learning the existing policies, obtaining public records, engaging influencers in honest dialog, presenting verified evidence in a fair format, and seeking allies to pressure for reform.

Independent journalists and upstart news organizations in Mexico have banded together to counter potentially deadly or disruptive fake news with a highly organized fact-checking campaign calling itself Verificado. Besides debunking hundreds of false political rumors in the 2018 elections, the coalition has fact-checked the sort of fake news that has prompted mobs to carry out hundreds of lynchings. One WhatsApp fact-verifying account enabling anyone to submit requests for debunking stories has been used extensively by mostly young readers.

Richmond, California ranked among the highest homicide rates in the country. The city created the Office of Neighborhood Safety to engage the community in the effort to curb gun violence and prevent homicides. ONS works directly with the young people who are at risk and have succeeded in reducing the homicide rate.

Areas of High Point, North Carolina have suffered from crime, poverty, and neglect, until the city began implementing Operation Ceasefire, a policing program that uses data collecting, community support against crime. High Point is now leading the country in its success of Operation Ceasefire, boasting dramatic reductions in violent crimes, domestic abuse, robberies, and drug-related offenses.

HAWK, or Hostile Activity Watch Kernel, is a digital intelligence gathering system for wildlife crime in India. Field staff use HAWK’s app to enter data when they encounter a crime, which generates the documents an officer needs to submit in court. Since HAWK’s 2020 rollout, the criminal investigation process has been streamlined, resulting in fewer errors, quicker processing times, and more transparency. Building off its success, HAWK is now being introduced to more Indian states.

In 2019, a South Sudan chief organized and empowered local “vigilante groups” (networks of households tasked with supporting each other), and since then, the community has transformed from a sparsely populated and violent neighborhood into a crowded but safe place where markets can stay open later at night. This community policing tactic has since spread to other South Sudanese areas and relies on collaboration between various authorities and ethnic groups to succeed.

The UDEME Monitor program trains student journalists to track and report on transparency and accountability around publicly-funded projects. The team has produced roughly 1,000 stories exposing corruption and gaps in implementation and has worked directly with community residents to raise awareness around procurement processes.