In this time of partisan polarization and rampant misinformation, we need referees to call out political falsehoods. The world’s fact-checkers have been that group, with a global network of reporting and research teams that debunk fake news and false claims shared online. But their numbers seem to be plateauing — just as the need is growing. Based on a count by the Duke Reporters’ Lab, which uses two tagging systems (ClaimReview for text-based claims and MediaReview for images, videos and memes), there are 443 active fact-checking projects in 2025, down just a few percent from last year and similar to recent years. Many of these groups are working in countries deemed dangerous for journalism by Reporters Without Borders, and some have seen their funding cut.
While the global numbers have remained stable, there’s a lot of room for growth in certain regions. For example, the number of fact-checking projects in Asia has been falling since 2022, while those in Europe and Africa have stayed fairly steady. In the United States, where a major factor in the slowdown was the end of Meta’s partner program, local newsrooms have continued to launch their own fact-checking initiatives — including KOB-TV’s 4 Investigates and KWCH-TV’s FactFinder 12 — to fill in the gaps left by the drop in collaboration.
We used regression analysis to test the effect of a range of factors on people’s likelihood to post misinformation, including awareness of fact-checks, experience with them, having content deleted from their accounts, and their feelings of overall influence on others (“FOI”). We found that the only significant predictor of the likelihood to post misinformation was FOI, with those who reported high levels of it being more likely than those who did not to post false information.
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