Shakti
Shakti

SHAKTI

India Election Fact-Checking Collective

A consortium of Indian fact-checkers and news publishers coming together to counter online misinformation

SHAKTI

India Election Fact-Checking Collective

A consortium of Indian fact-checkers and news publishers coming together to counter online misinformation

Journalists
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Newsrooms & Fact- Checkers
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States/UTs
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Languages
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Journalists
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Newsrooms
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States/UTs
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This programme is supported by Google News Initiative

Shakti: India Election Fact-Checking Collective, is a consortium of fact-checkers and publishers in India working collaboratively in the run up to the 2024 polls to aid early detection of online misinformation and deepfakes, and to amplify the reach of fact-checks in local languages.

The effort is being driven by DataLEADS in collaboration with the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA), TheQuint,  Vishvas News,  BOOM,  Factly  and Newschecker and is enabled with support from the Google News Initiative.

Shakti: India Election Fact-Checking Collective, is a consortium of fact-checkers and news publishers in India who started working collaboratively in the run up to the 2024 polls to aid early detection of online misinformation and deepfakes, and to amplify the reach of fact-checks in local languages.

Driven by DataLEADS, this effort was run in collaboration with the Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA), The Quint, Vishvas News, BOOM, Factly and Newschecker and is enabled with support from the Google News Initiative.

Our Goal

Our Goal

Aid early detection of online misinformation and deepfakes

Amplify the reach of fact-checks in local and regional languages​

Enhance fact-checking skills of journalists and fact-checkers ​

Shakti Collective Impact

6600 +
Fact-checkS DISTRIBUTED AND AMPLIFIED in 10+ languages
180 %
Increase in regional language fact-checks
92 %
increase in number of fact-checks published
67 +
NEW fact-check DESKS activated in Multiple languages
4 x
increase in number of organisations actively fact-checked misinformation
79 %
reduction in publishing time for newsrooms for fact-checks

Our Approach

Our Approach

01

Pan-India Collaboration

Provide publishers and fact-checkers a platform to collaborate on fact-checking efforts
02

Collaborative Fact-checking

Optimise time and resources for participating organisations by pooling in knowledge and leads
03

Capacity Building

Training on advanced fact-checking and deep fake detection

Why Shakti?

In the era of transforming information landscape, collaborative fact-checking has become a vital. Publisher and smaller newsrooms often lacks dedicated fact-checking teams, leading to inaccuracies. In India, regional language limitations and a growing threat of deepfakes during elections pose challenges, compounded by limited detection capacity. The time-intensive nature of fact-checking and the inadvertent spread of misinformation underscore the need for collective efforts. Collaborative efforts can streamline processes, enhance detection, and ensure accurate information in today’s digital landscape.

Shakti- India Election Fact-Checking Collective, aims to establish a pan-India collaboration of newsrooms and fact-checking organizations to ensure responsible and accurate information covering elections. The initiative also aims to unite fact-checkers and publishers to share knowledge and pool in resources, in turn, saving them crucial time in a busy election season and helping them with tools and competencies to deal with a new wave of election misinformation, including deepfakes and synthetic media.

The project helps consolidate the efforts of fact-checkers and news publishers across various Indian regions and languages, fostering a strong fact-checking ecosystem founded on collaboration.

Inviting Newsrooms​

If you are a newsroom keen to help your audience to build resilience against online misinformation and deepfakes, and are committed to enhancing the mission of the Collective, we invite you to sign up to become part of the Collective.
  • By joining the Collective, you will:
  • Be part of a pan-India, multilingual network of fact-checkers and newsrooms
  • Access a pool of expert fact-checkers for consultation and queries
  • Access a pool of fact-checking stories in multiple languages, that you can republish with due credit
  • Get training on topics such as advanced fact-checking, deepfake detection
  • Get early access to Google Fact Check Explorer’s new features
  • Get alerts on important misinformation and deepfakes
  • Technical support and mentoring on Claim Review mark ups
  • Preference will be given to those committed to strengthen the mission of the Collective and those publishing original news in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi and other regional languages.
Join the Collective

Voices of Shakti Collective

“Project Shakti gave us new allies in the fight against misinformation.”
Bharat Gupta
Bharat Gupta President, MCA & CEO Jagran New Media
“A collaborative network that truly empowers our citizens.”
Govindraj Ethiraj
Govindraj Ethiraj Founder, Boom
"The collaborative spirit of project shakti takes the sting out of misinformation."
Ritu Kapur
Ritu Kapur CO-FOUNDER & MD, The Quint
“Shakti Collective was crucial to protect people from misinformation.”
Bal Krishna
Bal Krishna Executive Editor, India Today
"India's fight against misinformation got a powerful boost with the Shakti Collective."
Pratyush Ranjan
Pratyush Ranjan Head of Digital Services & Fact Checking Unit, Press Trust of India (PTI)
"We need to have an ecosystem such as Shakti Collective to address the challenges of deepfakes."
Prof. Mayank Vatsa
Prof. Mayank Vatsa IIT Jodhpur
"The collective helped us to make links with fact-checkers across the country."
Ramesh K
Ramesh K Senior Manager, Malayala Manorma
"Shakti Collective Newsroom Training gave us a solid understanding of how to write fact-check stories."
Vishwas Purohit
Vishwas Purohit Digital Editor, Sakal Media Group
"It is a good initiative and the fact-checkers have been very balanced and non-partisan."
Venkatesh Kannaiah
Venkatesh Kannaiah Editor Consultant, Indian Express
"Thanks to Team Project Shakti for working collectively to provide us with relevant fact-checked articles."
Ashok Das
Ashok Das Founder and Editor, Dalit Dastak

Why Shakti?

The Collective is essential to address common challenges faced by the fact-checking community and newsrooms like time and resource constraints, language barrier, and competency gaps. It aims to foster a collaborative spirit to enhance fact-checking efforts and build a resilient information ecosystem.

Why Shakti?

The Collective is essential to address common challenges faced by the fact-checking community and newsrooms like time and resource constraints, language barrier, and competency gaps. It aims to foster a collaborative spirit to enhance fact-checking efforts and build a resilient information ecosystem.

Training Sessions

We offered member organisations training on topics like:
  • Google's Fact Check Explorer
  • Claim Review and Fact Check Mark Up Tool
  • Deepfakes & Synthetic Media: Concepts and Evolution
  • Deepfake Detection: Approaches and Solution
  • Short Form Video Fact-checks: Best Practices
  • Google’s Project Shield, Advanced Protection Program
  • Election Misinformation: Trends from Around the World
  • Visual Verification and Advanced fact-checking
Training sessions​
0
Masterclasses and Newsroom Trainings
0
Journalists trained​
0 +

Globally, new and emerging types of misinformation are being used to influence voters and manipulate elections. India is seen as a vulnerable country with limited resources to address the coming wave of election-related misinformation. Further, misinformation in India flourishes in regional languages, but very few vernacular newsrooms have dedicated teams monitoring fake news regularly.

Shakti will unite fact-checkers and news publishers across Indian regions and languages to foster a collaborative fact-checking ecosystem to effectively combat the spread of misinformation ahead of the 2024 Indian General elections and preserve the integrity of democratic process in the country.

Accordion Content

Why Shakti?

Since 2018, Google News Initiative: India Training Network has cultivated a strong nationwide fact-checking ecosystem, training more than 65,000 individuals. Project Shakti, an initiative born from this network’s success, aims to enhance India’s fact-checking landscape by uniting fact-checking organizations, regional newsrooms, and publishers on a single platform.

Project Shakti aims to consolidate the efforts of fact-checkers and news publishers across various Indian regions and languages, fostering a collaborative fact-checking ecosystem. This collective effort is imperative to effectively address the spread of misinformation during 2024 Indian General elections.

The project tackles misinformation challenges by providing free access to fact-check articles/stories for participating newsrooms and publishers. To amplify the reach, participating members will get opportunity to co-publish fact-checked stories with due credits. The initiative addresses the rise of deepfakes through capacity building training sessions. The collaborative platform will enhance the robustness of the fact-checking ecosystem by promoting knowledge sharing, providing advisory support, and offering technological assistance.

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Team Shakti

The Collective is a collaborative effort that unites fact-checkers and newsrooms nationwide to foster and streamline fact-checking ecosystem and address misinformation more effectively.

Supported by

Synthetic Media & Deepfakes Advisory Council Members

Prof. B. Ravindran

Head, Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science & AI, IIT Madras

Prof. Mayank Vatsa

Professor, Department of Computer Science, IIT Jodhpur

Prof. Deepak Garg

Vice Chancellor, SR University, Warangal, Director, leadingindia.ai

Nisha Bhambani

Senior Lawyer, Supreme Court of India & Media Law Expert

Timeline

  1. Shakti Collective launched
  2. Onboarding meet of partner fact-checkers and news publishers
  3. March 14, 2024: The Shakti Masterclasses to build capacities of partner journalists begin with a session on Google Fact Check Explorer
  4. First story republished by Sakal, a leading Marathi-language daily
  5. A new video repository opened up for publishers to amplify fact-check stories in video format
  6. Digital Cafe Series started to identify challenges and strengthen collaboration
  7. Newsrooms and fact-checkers meet to discuss way forward and exchange learnings and experiences
  • Shakti Collective launched
  • Onboarding meeting of partner fact-check
  • The Shakti Masterclasses to build capacities of partner journalists begin with a session on Google Fact Check Explorer
  • In mattis Deepfake detection Masterclass on synthetic media and approaches to detect deepfakes conducted by Witness
  • First story republished by Sakal, a leading Marathi-language daily
  • A new video repository opened up for publishers to amplify fact-check stories in video format
  • Digital Cafe Series started to identify challenges and strengthen collaboration
  • Newsrooms and fact-checkers meet to discuss way forward and exchange learnings and experiences

Why is it important for fact-checkers and news publishers to come together?

Syed Nazakat
Amidst a complex information landscape, with the elections round the corner, the Collective is a crucial intervention to build a robust fact-checking ecosystem in India to safeguard the democratic processes. We are honoured and excited to partner with Google News Initiative, MCA and India’s leading fact-checking organisations and news publishers to build this important consortium.
Syed Nazakat, CEO and Founder, DataLEADS
Bharat Gupta
In an era where digital information flows faster than ever, the need to empower people with trustworthy and credible information has never been more critical. The strategic partnership of MCA with the Google News Initiative and DataLEADS will empower different demographics, helping individuals with credible and fact-checked information at the grassroots level, so that they can make the most informed choices during the elections and beyond. MCA's fact-checking members aim to debilitate and disarm the agents of disinformation by using a combination of high-integrity journalism and useful technologies against emerging threats to democracy.
Bharat Gupta, CEO, Jagran New Media and President, Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA)
Ritu Kapur
Misinformation and disinformation is proliferating at an alarming pace, aided by technology and fuelled and funded by those who stand to gain by it. The only way to combat the malaise is to join forces as fact checkers and news publishers. Not just to fact check that which has gone viral, but to prebunk and inoculate the same digital highways that spread fake information, with media literacy and relevant information. We need to work with our audiences so they can make well informed decisions as voters in a democracy. GNI and DataLEADS’ initiative towards building a collaboration between fact checkers and news publishers is a much needed step in this direction.
Ritu Kapur, Co-Founder & Managing Director, The Quint
Govindraj Ethiraj
Voters have to take decisions on the basis of accurate information on their candidates so they can make sound choices when casting their ballot. In these times of all pervasive social media, creating awareness about and tackling misinformation thus becomes an important task and challenge for all of us. By pooling our skills and teams, we hope to contribute to building a collaborative network that truly empowers our citizens.
Govindraj Ethiraj, Founder, BOOM
Rajesh Upadhyay
Vishvas News is excited to play a crucial role in this fact-checking collective, which brings together a much needed collaboration to effectively counter election-related and AI-generated disinformation. We remain committed to impactful public service journalism rooted in credibility that equips our audiences to make informed choices. We will continue to nurture an informed and digitally literate community, ensuring that every citizen, irrespective of age or background, is equipped to contribute positively to the democratic process.
Rajesh Upadhyay, Editor-in-Chief, Jagran New Media
Rakesh Dubbudu
In an era of rapid technological advancements and information proliferation, fact-checkers and news publishers hold a pivotal role in safeguarding the integrity of the elections of the world's largest democracy. Collaboration between these entities is paramount to collectively confront the ever increasing challenge of misinformation, with each bringing to the table their unique strengths. Am confident that this partnership will help the wide dissemination of accurate and verified information to the public, fostering an informed electorate capable of making well-reasoned decisions. By bridging the gap between fact-checkers' expertise in verifying information and publishers' extensive reach, we can effectively combat misinformation, strengthen public trust, and uphold the integrity of the democratic process.
Rakesh Dubbudu, Founder & CEO, Factly
Ruby Dhingra
The collaboration between fact-checkers and publishers has the potential to emerge as a formidable alliance to counter the imminent dangers of misinformation in the upcoming elections of the world's largest democracy. Together, we aim to foster an environment where accuracy triumphs over misinformation. Navigating the complexities of the digital realm hand in hand, we aspire to partner closely with publishers to safeguard the integrity of India's elections.
Ruby Dhingra, Managing Editor, Newschecker
Vijay Joshi
Since its inception in 1947, the Press Trust of India (PTI) has been committed to furthering the power of facts. Today, when technology is being misused to manipulate facts and spread misinformation, there is a greater need for PTI to be on the frontlines in the war against fake news. Joining the India Election Fact-Checking Collective is but a natural step for India's most trusted name in journalism. PTI Newsroom has been following a strict information verification process supported by the editorial guidelines since its beginning more than seven decades ago. We are delighted that we will be working closely with renowned publishers and leading fact-checkers of India to debunk election-related misinformation in the coming months.
Vijay Joshi, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, Press Trust of India
Amey Gogate
Power of Unity Bringing together the country's leading fact-checkers and publishers was no easy feat, but DataLEADS accomplished it, forging a grand alliance that has lasted for more than three months without any disputes. The Collective has instilled a sense of responsibility in new journalists, making them adept at verifying information with various tools. We look forward to the Collective's continued success in safeguarding the truth.
Amey Gogate, Editor, Lokmat (Digital)
Ashok Das
Many congratulations on the Collective. The approach of print media is quite different from that of digital media; once something is published, it serves as final evidence. In the current scenario, we constantly question whether the information we gather is fake or real. We can't take risks without verifying facts, and the work done by the Collective, to provide us with relevant fact-checked articles, is commendable.
Ashok Das, Founder and Editor, Dalit Dastak
Ramesh K
The Collective helped us to promote regional fact-check stories with national implications in a timely and effective manner and connect with fact-checkers from across the country.
Ramesh K, Assistant Manager, Malayala Manorama- Digital

Why is it important for fact-checkers and news publishers to come together?

Bharat Gupta
In an era where digital information flows faster than ever, the need to empower people with trustworthy and credible information has never been more critical. The strategic partnership of MCA with the Google News Initiative and DataLEADS will empower different demographics, helping individuals with credible and fact-checked information at the grassroots level, so that they can make the most informed choices during the elections and beyond. MCA's fact-checking members aim to debilitate and disarm the agents of disinformation by using a combination of high-integrity journalism and useful technologies against emerging threats to democracy.
Bharat Gupta, CEO, Jagran New Media and President, Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA)
Ritu Kapur
Misinformation and disinformation is proliferating at an alarming pace, aided by technology and fuelled and funded by those who stand to gain by it. The only way to combat the malaise is to join forces as fact checkers and news publishers. Not just to fact check that which has gone viral, but to prebunk and inoculate the same digital highways that spread fake information, with media literacy and relevant information. We need to work with our audiences so they can make well informed decisions as voters in a democracy. GNI and DataLEADS’ initiative towards building a collaboration between fact checkers and news publishers is a much needed step in this direction.
Ritu Kapur, Co-Founder & Managing Director, The Quint
Govindraj Ethiraj
Voters have to take decisions on the basis of accurate information on their candidates so they can make sound choices when casting their ballot. In these times of all pervasive social media, creating awareness about and tackling misinformation thus becomes an important task and challenge for all of us. By pooling our skills and teams, we hope to contribute to building a collaborative network that truly empowers our citizens.
Govindraj Ethiraj, Founder, BOOM
Rajesh Upadhaya
Vishvas News is excited to play a crucial role in this fact-checking collective, which brings together a much needed collaboration to effectively counter election-related and AI-generated disinformation. We remain committed to impactful public service journalism rooted in credibility that equips our audiences to make informed choices. We will continue to nurture an informed and digitally literate community, ensuring that every citizen, irrespective of age or background, is equipped to contribute positively to the democratic process.
Rajesh Upadhaya, Editor-in-Chief, Jagran New Media
Rakesh Dubbudu
In an era of rapid technological advancements and information proliferation, fact-checkers and news publishers hold a pivotal role in safeguarding the integrity of the elections of the world's largest democracy. Collaboration between these entities is paramount to collectively confront the ever increasing challenge of misinformation, with each bringing to the table their unique strengths. Am confident that this partnership will help the wide dissemination of accurate and verified information to the public, fostering an informed electorate capable of making well-reasoned decisions. By bridging the gap between fact-checkers' expertise in verifying information and publishers' extensive reach, we can effectively combat misinformation, strengthen public trust, and uphold the integrity of the democratic process.
Rakesh Dubbudu, Founder & CEO, Factly
Ruby Dhingra
The collaboration between fact-checkers and publishers has the potential to emerge as a formidable alliance to counter the imminent dangers of misinformation in the upcoming elections of the world's largest democracy. Together, we aim to foster an environment where accuracy triumphs over misinformation. Navigating the complexities of the digital realm hand in hand, we aspire to partner closely with publishers to safeguard the integrity of India's elections.
Ruby Dhingra, Managing Editor, Newschecker
Vijay Joshi
Since its inception in 1947, the Press Trust of India (PTI) has been committed to furthering the power of facts. Today, when technology is being misused to manipulate facts and spread misinformation, there is a greater need for PTI to be on the frontlines in the war against fake news. Joining the India Election Fact-Checking Collective is but a natural step for India's most trusted name in journalism. PTI Newsroom has been following a strict information verification process supported by the editorial guidelines since its beginning more than seven decades ago. We are delighted that we will be working closely with renowned publishers and leading fact-checkers of India to debunk election-related misinformation in the coming months.
Vijay Joshi, CEO & Editor-in-Chief, Press Trust of India

Shakti Reflections

Launch of Shakti Collective: Join us as we navigate through the highlights of the onboarding session where fact-checkers and news publishers deliberated and discussed the workflow of the Shakti Collective.

Jency Jacob, Managing Editor, BOOM, talks about the value of the Shakti Collective’s collaborative spirit in combating misinformation during the elections and highlights that it’s a small step, but an important one.

Rajesh Upadhyay, Editor-in-Chief, Vishvas News emphasizes the importance of unity of agencies & organizations to combat the growing challenge of misinformation

Shelly Walia, Executive Editor, The Quint, highlights how the Shakti Collective united prominent news outlets to effectively combat election-related misinformation

Jatin Gandhi, Executive Editor, Vishvas News talks about the rising tide of misinformation, especially during elections

Bal Krishna, Executive Editor-Fact-Check, IndiaToday, on why and how the Shakti Collective united during the national elections