Accountability in name only: Fact-checking under the EU’s Code of Practice on Disinformation

Major platforms constantly claim to fight disinformation and support the fact checking community, but their transparency reports and the empirical evidence from a survey of expert fact checkers across 21 EU countries show a different reality. This study finds that despite commitments made under EU regulations, expert fact checkers remain largely peripheral actors within the existing platform governance framework, with limited insight into how their work influences platform decisions. As Brussels rolls out its new Democracy Shield (European Parliament, 2025), our study exposes that the promise of algorithmic transparency remains largely unfulfilled, leaving frontline fact checkers locked out of the very governance systems they are meant to support.