The Founding Executive Director of FactSpace West Africa, Rabiu Alhassan, has been elected to the board of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), effective October 1.

The IFCN at the Poynter Institute in the USA connects more than 170 fact-checking organisations worldwide to promote high standards, accountability in journalism and information integrity initiatives.

“I hope to promote equitable partnerships in the face of major power imbalances in the information integrity ecosystem, highlight the severe lack of local-language AI moderation tools, particularly in this part of the world and help build sustained public trust in fact-checking,” Rabiu Alhassan stated in an interview.

For a 3-year term, he will be representing Africa on the advisory board, which is expected to guide the IFCN through a time of uncertainty, innovation, and renewal, and will vote on all significant matters of IFCN direction, including approving verified member applications and renewals.

As part of the exhaustive, multi-round voting process, there were regional and all-signatories global votes to determine candidates who had majority support (50%+1) of the voting community.

Despite two available board seats for Africa, Alhassan emerged as the only finalist who cleared the 50%+1 threshold after the first round of voting in a contest that involved five other candidates  -  the IFCN will be expected to organise another election for the one extra Africa seat in 2027.

Other newly elected board members include Ritu Kapur representing South Asia, Masato Kajimoto representing  Asia Pacific, Europe will be represented by Thanos Sitistas. Latin America has two representatives, Daniel Bramatti and

Olivia Sohr, Aws al-Saadi will be representing the MENA region, and Lori Robertson will be representing North America.

Rabiu Alhassan’s board seat win is a testament to his continued contribution to the global fact-checking community, which has involved serving on several IFCN working groups over the years that have resulted in important outputs for global fact-checking efforts, including the IFCN Anti-Harassment Working Group, IFCN YouTube Working Group, and the IFCN Financial Sustainability Working Group.

On the African continent, he has led FactSpace West Africa to become a recognisable contributor to the information integrity ecosystem, providing mentorship and training to several organisations and journalists, which culminated in the co-hosting of the 2024 Africa Facts Summit, the Africa Check-led annual Fact-Checking Conference in Accra, Ghana.

Rabiu Alhassan is a journalist and media entrepreneur with 17 years of experience working across media channels – television, radio, print and digital platforms.

After launching FactSpace West Africa in 2019 and guiding the organisation to become a signatory to the IFCN code of principles, which is the gold standard in fact-checking, he has invested in media innovation and the design of products at the intersection of technology and journalism, with a focus on information disorder.

FactSpace West Africa has footprints in Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and The Gambia, contributing to localised efforts to tackle digital threats and the weaponisation of disinformation in the subregion.

Alhassan holds an Erasmus Mundus master’s degree in Journalism, Media and Globalisation, specialising in Business and Finance from City St. George’s University of London (UK) and Aarhus University (Denmark).