fact checking Archives — LIRNEasia


On July 3, 2025, in Colombo, LIRNEasia organized the “Day of Information Disorder” to disseminate research findings from two major studies: a nationally representative survey and an experimental study measuring the effectiveness of misinformation countering measures. The event brought together researchers, journalists, media professionals, tech innovators, and policy experts to address one of today’s most urgent challenges: information disorder. The day began with an introduction by Helani Galpaya, CEO of LIRNEasia, who set the tone by unpacking what information disorder is and why it matters. LIRNEasia researcher Shenali Bamaramannage followed with a thought-provoking presentation titled “Are we idiots?”, sharing key findings from LIRNEasia’s national research on the human factors influencing susceptibility to misinformation in Sri Lanka.
On the 1st of July 2025, LIRNEasia in collaboration with the University of Jaffna held an event titled Launch of the information disorder research in Sri Lanka and a forum on building digital resilience. The event centered around the launch of results from a LIRNEasia study assessing the ability of Tamil news readers in Sri Lanka to classify information as true/false, and measuring the effectiveness of popular countermeasures to misinformation, such as fact-checking and media literacy programs. The opening address was given by Prof. Sivakolundu Srisatkunarajah, Vice Chancellor of the University of Jaffna, talked about the digital revolution, the newer challenges arising due to the information disorder and the importance of information literacy as a counter measure. The chief guest at the event, the Hon.
The following article was originally published on the IDRC – Resisting information disorder in the Global South website. LIRNEasia studied information disorder in Asia for a scoping study on challenges of information disorder in the Global South in 2022[1]. We conducted over 80 key informant interviews, including fact checkers and journalist to gather data for the study. Fact checkers and journalists talked about use of digital tools, including AI tools in their day-to-day work. Some of their Digital tools included ‘the Social-People Index, Facebook Ad Library, Crowd Tangle, Sentione, Google fact-check tool, Claim Buster, and TinEye’.