Nine media initiatives have been selected to receive funding and mentorship to develop projects that combat disinformation in Brazil as part of Jogo Limpo ("Fair Game"), a program run by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) in partnership with YouTube Brazil.

First launched in 2022, Jogo Limpo supported six projects in the lead up to the presidential elections. Following the success of those initiatives, the second round of the program launched.

This year's teams will receive up to $13,750 and five months of mentorship from experts in the fields of business, disinformation and project development. Their projects range from collecting and analyzing false news reports targeting Black communities to a multimedia guide for educations on disinformation as it relates to extremism and hate speech in schools.

A team composed of two ICFJ specialists and two external judges from Brazil and Argentina chose the winners among more than 80 entries. They considered criteria like innovation and creativity, relevancy to disinformation, and the structure of the proposal.

Over the next few months, the selected teams will develop high-impact projects to tackle disinformation focused on media literacy, content production, and technology development. The winning organizations are from the north, northeast and southeast regions of the country. ICFJ Brazil is funding the program.

Learn about the winning projects:

1. Amplifying the voice of the Black community against disinformation:

• Problem: A lack of structured information about how disinformation affects the Black population in Brazil, resulting in few projects and campaigns to combat disinformation with this focus.
• Project: Campaign to collect reports of false news directed at Black communities. After collecting, checking, and analyzing the false news, the team will produce research findings with notes and excerpts on how disinformation affects the Black population in Brazil.
• Organization: Alma Preta Jornalismo, in partnership with Sleeping Giants Brasil

2. Accessible Check (Checagem Acessível):

• Problem: A lack of accessibility on news fact-checking platforms and, as a consequence, a larger vulnerability for people with disabilities to disinformation that circulates in social networks.
• Project: Construction of a report with a diagnosis of the level of accessbility for the eleven Brazilian news-checking sites; development of a manual detailing how verification tools can make their functionailities adhere better to accessibility guidelines; and a training in accessible communication and assistive technologies for the teams of all of the organizations that were analyzed.
• Organization: Eficientes, in partnership with Lume Acessibilidade

3) School Free of Hate (Escola livre de ódio):

• Problem: Worldwide growth of extremism with attacks on schools as one of the biggest national repercussions. Association between high consumption of false news and increased intolerance. Exposure of youth to extremist narratives and a lack of tools within education communities to combat the circulation and effects of false news.
• Project: Multimedia guide for educators on the relationship between disinformation and the growth of extremism and hate speech in Brazilian schools. The material investigates the context of attacks in schools and offers guidance for teachers to promote practices to combat false news and media education.
• Organization: Instituto Porvir

4) Pulpo Antifiction:

• Problem: False narratives that question the credibility of the electoral system and put democracy at risk.
• Project: An interactive global map to concentrate, in one place, the essential features of all electoral systems in the world and allow comparisons. The audience will be able to select different countries and compare electoral processes, obtaining information about each system (time of calculation, size of the electorate, compulsory voting or not, etc.).
• Organization: Correio Sabiá

5) Media education for riverside, indigenous, and peripheral communities in the Amazon:

• Problem: Structural distance between socially vulnerable populations and the universe of journalism, which is one of the reasons for the impact of misinformation among these populations, in addition to hostility towards the work of journalists.
• Project: Media literacy workshops for riverside, indigenous, and peripheral communities in cities in the Amazon, with the main objective of bringing readers closer to the universe of news production. In the last stage of the project, participants from each location will build a community newspaper so that the project leaves a legacy in the region.
• Journalist: Cley Medeiros

6) Ask Folhinha! (Pergunta pra Folhinha!):

• Problem: children are widely exposed to all types of video content, including false information and low-quality materials. Adding to this, there is very little content for this age group that addresses this problem.
• Project: A series of animated videos for children between 4 and 12 years old that approaches, in a playful way, current themes that are consistent targets of disinformation narratives. The final objective is that children are introduced to professional journalism at an age when their perceptions of the world are being formed and when media literacy plays a fundamental role.
• Organization: Folha de São Paulo

7) Want me to draw? (Quer que eu desenhe?):

• Problem: Disinformation campaigns about public policies about culture, the funding for cultural initiatives and artists that make up the country's cultural scene.
• Project: Production of quality content in new digital journalism formats to combat disinformation in the field of culture and art. The formats will be as follows: comic book journalism, illustrated FAQs (using animation and interactive elements), and video-essays.
• Organization: Revista O Grito!

8) Lupa nos Golpistas:

• Problem: Impact of false news and coordinated disinformation campaigns on electoral processes.
• Project: Mapping of false publications that led Brazilians to participate in anti-democratic acts in Brasília on January 8, 2023 and the subsequent production of a medium-length documentary focused on the individuals who participated in these events, which demonstrates how false information directly impacts the lives of people and changes the course of national history.
• Organization: Lupa

9) Amazônia Vox:

• Problem: environmental misinformation; difficulty for journalists from other states and countries to access sources with knowledge of the Amazon and the low numbers of Amazonian leaders and voices in reports on the topic of enviornmental misinformation.
• Project: Platform already under development that will offer a vast bank of resources from the Amazon, with authorities, experts and leaders from the region in different areas of knowledge, facilitating contact with journalists. The project will also produce a multimedia content series with Amazonian scientists and leaders, aiming to support the fight against disinformation about the region, especially in the area of climate change, environment and health.
• Journalist: Daniel Nardin 

At the end of the program, ICFJ will promote a virtual event for the project teams to share solutions, as well as challenges and learnings.