This paper is one of a series of research elements produced by the European Union funded AHA! Awareness with Human Action project that seeks to contribute to the response efforts of the COVID-19 pandemic by preventing conflict and building social cohesion in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and broader South Asia. The AHA! project is implemented by a consortium of project partners, including the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers/Finn Church Aid, World Faiths Development Dialogue, the Center for Peace and Justice – Brac University, the Center for Communication and Development of Bangladesh, Islamic Relief Worldwide, the Youth Development Foundation, and Sarvodaya.

The global COVID-19 crisis has highlighted how far online spaces are both extraordinary sources of information but are also flooded with misinformation. In the digital information age, social media has become a vital source of news and a prevalent means of communication. With a constant stream of eye-catching content from various sources, audiences struggle to determine which sources are credible and which claims are true. Many social media users believe and share the information they receive without questioning its veracity. Certain demographics are at a particular disadvantage due to socioeconomic factors. South Asia, home to more than 500 million Facebook users,1 has hundreds of millions of people using messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Messenger. The fast changing and bewildering environment is complicated by audiences’ lack of digital and media literacy—the ability to locate and critically engage with online information. Disparities in education, internet access, and digital device ownership leave large populations in South Asia without the necessary knowledge or skills to obtain factual digital content.

This brief reviews fact-checking resources for online audiences in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. These resources consist primarily of articles that assess popular claims—in this case, about COVID-19—and debunk or correct those that are false or misleading. Good fact-checking resources are published online by reputable news outlets and organizations dedicated to independent verification, usually certified by the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN). They follow a clear, rigorous methodology for fact-checking, with transparency about their sources. Without organizations willing to do this work, audiences—including ordinary social media users and journalists and policymakers—would need to expend enormous amounts of time and energy to personally investigate popular claims; few can afford to do so. The brief provides practical suggestions for general readers and community influencers to disseminate factual information effectively within their social networks.