Wikidata *and* B&S? As always, a true treat

Half of Europe’s towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago A data analysis by CORRECTIV.Europe reveals for the first time that even as Europe’s overall population grows, half of its municipalities are losing inhabitants.

Half of Europe’s towns and villages have fewer residents than 60 years ago

(Interesting stuff, including full UK data as well)

correctiv.org/en/europe/20...

Just a lot to take in here.

Inside a pro-Conservative influence operation on Community Notes Inside a pro-Conservative group effort to influence X's Community Notes

Small pro-tory group made a dent in ensuring community notes weren't added to party tweets at the last election.

Pretty rare to see this in the UK, but once again showing the weaknesses inside the badly governed crowd sourcing of truth.

If only something like independent fact checking existed.

If you like this work, please create a "supporter" account here:
trends.whotargets.me/start

And you can donate to Full Fact here:
fullfact2.beaconforms.com/form/cb049fc5

How Full Fact will be covering the 2026 elections – Full Fact Full Fact is undertaking an ambitious range of activities to ensure that you, our audience are as well informed as possible.

We're collaborating with @fullfact.org on tracking ads and holding them accountable for the Scottish, Welsh + local elections in the UK next month. More on that here: fullfact.org/politics/how...

Oh! This looks very different than when I last looked.

www.data.gov.uk

The Pears Foundation new report on Countering Online Conspiracies in Schools is well worth a read. It makes it very clear schools have become a frontline in the fight against conspiracy theories, and need serious support. counteringconspiracies.publicfirst.co.uk/Commission_i...

Graph API Engagement counts stopped updating globally, Meta support recognizes it is a bug but won't do anything - Developer Community Forum - Meta for Developers

and the graph API for engagement counts.

developers.facebook.com/community/th...

A lot to take in amongst this great report (15% of 18-24 year olds use AI chatbots as a main source of news!)

FB being straight up called legacy is producing a complex range of emotions for this middle aged reader.

If you spot a spike in use, this was very popular at lunch time at Facts Club where we were trying to get the highest scores in 5mins

What fact checking is, keeps on changing.

Strengthening Arab fact checking: lessons from partnering with the Arab Fact-Checking Network From 2023 to 2025, Full Fact partnered with the Arab Fact-Checking Network to pilot AI tools adapted for Arabic-language media environments. The tools reduced monitoring time, expanded coverage and en...

Do you give small tech grants or know someone who does? You could fund every Arabic speaking fact checker to have access to the best technology in the world with *guaranteed* impact. Right now.

In all my years doing this, I can't believe this is the project I can't get funding for.

Going from Gemini 2.0 -> 3.1 it's a 233% increase in input token cost, and a 400% increase in output token cost

(Things get more expensive, but Windows 7 was not 400% more expensive than Windows XP)

Strengthening Arab fact checking: lessons from partnering with the Arab Fact-Checking Network From 2023 to 2025, Full Fact partnered with the Arab Fact-Checking Network to pilot AI tools adapted for Arabic-language media environments. The tools reduced monitoring time, expanded coverage and en...

We built something that really really worked. Then watched it get switched off because we simply couldn't afford to keep the servers turned on

Civic tech is tough just now

MCP for gov data, when?

modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/learn/a...

Breaking new ground, always

The absolute dream. A god-tier sticker

an image of an open laptop. It features a number of stickers on the lid with civic tech and GDS style slogans on them including 'open by design' and 'boring magic'. It also features a clear sticker of the waybackmachine logo, something that says 'fact matter', 'i'm a hopeful technologist' and my personal fave one that states 'you can't programme vibes'

If your sticker is in this image, congratulations. Your work was *checks notes* featured on TV in Singapore over the weekend.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=svGz... (about 6mins in)

The Gorton and Denton by-election: fact checked – Full Fact As voters in the Greater Manchester constituency prepare to head to the polls, here’s a round-up of claims we’ve fact checked from the campaign.

Our Full Fact wrap on the by-election landscape. I think it is safe to say, room to improve for everyone involved.

MCP for gov data, when?

modelcontextprotocol.io/docs/learn/a...

potentially this link takes you to the advert

www.civilservicejobs.service.gov.uk/csr/jobs.cgi...

So let's take it back to the old skool sheets
Original beats with real live CSVs

No way can that be ten years. I was only working there like 5mins ago. Right?

(It really has stood the tests of time)

Archiving the content we check: How we are working with others to support the infrastructure for international fact checking. – Full Fact Full Fact is the UK’s independent fact checking charity

I have written a post about the magic of collaboration amongst fact checkers and why Fundación Maldita.es and @fullfact.org are stepping up and making sure vital bits of our data infrastructure can keep running

Strongly relating to this right now. It just feels so oppressive. I am sure I have recency bias in some ways, but this really does feel like as bad as it has ever been in my 20 years here.

Very excited to see this out in the world (I made the smallest of small contributions to it, but it is exactly the kind of work we should be thinking about when it comes to trust and AI)

A really interesting chat between @eliothiggins.bsky.social and @cward1e.bsky.social.

This broad narrative of debunking and fact checking not being effective that sometimes creeps through is frustrating and I am thankful to Claire for talking about @fullfact.org and how our work is always evolving

It feels like it has been a moment since we have had a 'figures as percentages that are actually percentage point changes' and to do so with a bar chart? Very old skool.