At the recent GlobalFact conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, the international fact-checking community gathered to address a landscape marked simultaneously by resilience and severe existential pressure. Angie Drobnic Holan, director of the International Fact-Checking Network, highlighted how the industry is facing mounting attacks from political actors and shrinking funding models, further exacerbated by monopolistic tech platforms. Despite these struggles, the prevailing message remained one of defiance; Neil Brown, president of the Poynter Institute, underscored that misinformation serves as a tool for repression, and that the act of fact-checking remains an essential, honorable defense of democratic accountability.
Keynote speaker Nina Jankowicz called for a shift in strategy, urging fact-checkers to move beyond technical, defensive reporting toward a more unified and audacious stance. She argued that the movement has been too timid in the face of coordinated global campaigns—ranging from restrictive U.S. visa policies to state-sponsored disinformation from Russia and China. Jankowicz emphasized that the community’s current challenges are evidence of its success, as powerful forces clearly view accurate reporting as a significant threat to their influence and profit, necessitating a renewed, emotionally resonant, and bold commitment to the truth.
The state of the industry remains complex: while there are currently 437 active fact-checking operations across 116 countries, the Duke Reporters’ Lab reported a concerning trend where three times as many outlets closed as opened in 2025. A significant factor in this decline was Meta’s decision to terminate its U.S.-based fact-checking program. However, total numbers remain near all-time highs, suggesting that while the support infrastructure is evolving, the imperative to verify information has not waned. Holan issued a fresh plea for technology giants to rejoin the effort, asserting that neutral, high-quality information is vital for the health of global discourse.
Financial sustainability emerged as a top structural concern, with three-quarters of surveyed fact-checkers describing their organizations as vulnerable or in crisis. Peter Erdelyi, a media investigator, noted that the traditional model of relying on philanthropy and public funding is increasingly unstable. He suggested that outlets must pivot toward “consumer-driven” products, offering professional services or specialized data insights to businesses, insurers, or healthcare entities. By transitioning from a purely public-goods approach to a more sustainable market-oriented strategy, these organizations can better weather the shifting tides of media funding.
The rise of generative artificial intelligence presented a paradox during the conference: it stands as both a potential efficiency tool for newsrooms and a rapidly maturing threat to public, verifiable, and consensus-based truth. Research presented by Hibrid.info demonstrated that AI models are not neutral; they reflect the geopolitical and ideological biases of their developers in China, Russia, and the U.S. Furthermore, experts warned that the era of undetectable, “good enough” AI-generated disinformation has already arrived, signaling that the “answer economy” will place even greater strain on the traditional verification workflows that newsrooms have relied upon for decades.
Finally, convening in Vilnius added an urgent, geopolitical layer to the discussions, as the Baltic nation serves as a frontline against “cognitive warfare” orchestrated by authoritarian regimes. Lithuanian officials described modern disinformation campaigns as strategic attempts to paralyze decision-making and break the social contract through persistent, repetitive falsehoods. By treating information security as a core component of national defense, Lithuania offers a “whole-of-society” template for other nations. As Baltic journalists shared their experiences with Kremlin-backed influence networks, the takeaway for attendees was clear: the narrative tactics pioneered against the Baltics are a preview of threats that will inevitably confront democracies worldwide.