How Covid conspiracy theories in local Facebook groups led me to fact checking

I work in the News and Online team at Full Fact, focusing on the weird and wonderful claims circulating on social media, particularly after breaking news events. 

I previously worked at The Bookseller magazine and for The Local Democracy Reporting Service, covering council business in South West London.

It was during my time as a Local Democracy Reporter (amid the first lockdown in 2020) that I first understood the danger posed by online misinformation. 

Unable to meet with contacts in person, I started to reach out to people for stories in local Facebook groups. It was in these groups that I began to notice posts about “cures for Covid”, or claims the virus wasn’t real. 

New Low Traffic Neighbourhoods were also being introduced, with proponents saying they would make residential streets more bike and pedestrian friendly. They proved controversial, with some saying they caused extra traffic elsewhere, but I also began to notice comments on my articles claiming the schemes were part of a larger conspiracy to limit people’s personal freedoms and ‘control’ the population. Some of the comments came from residents I knew and regularly spoke to about council business. They were ordinary people who were clearly frightened during this particularly strange and isolating time and had fallen down internet rabbit holes in a bid to find the ‘truth’. 

It was around this time that I first came across Full Fact, and their work to try and prevent the spread of misinformation on social media. I was grateful to have an independent source I could point readers to whenever they had very valid questions about Covid measures, and appreciated the charity’s efforts to try and limit the spread of the harmful misinformation I was seeing daily as part of their partnership with Meta. So when I saw a job advertised in their news and online team a few years later, I knew this was somewhere I wanted to work.

I enjoy the problem solving aspect of my job, tracking down original footage or working backwards to understand where a false claim has come from. But we’re working in a tricky environment that is hostile to fact checkers all while mis and disinformation feels like it is spreading faster than ever before. 

This article is part of the #FactsMatter campaign, which is highlighting the important work we do at Full Fact and why we believe it matters. Over the course of the campaign we’ll be talking about how we check facts, the challenges we face in getting to the heart of evidence and the difference we can make when we do so. 

We’re asking people to share what we publish, sign up to our newsletter and tell the world why #FactsMatter more than ever. Find out more about the campaign and how you can support it here.