Kashif participated in the 10th annual International Day of Democracy event in Belgium.

The Palestinian Platform for Fact-Checking and Media Literacy – Kashif participated in the 10th annual International Day of Democracy event, held at the headquarters of the European Committee of the Regions in Brussels, Belgium.

Kashif’s director, Riham Abu Aita, spoke in the fourth session titled, “How Do We Combat Media Misinformation in Times of War?” alongside Sudanese political cartoonist and civil rights activist Khalid Albaih and Irina Fedorov, co-founder of the Ukrainian organization “Holka.” The session was moderated by Shada Islam, Executive Director of the New Horizons Project and a consultant and analyst in the field of geopolitical strategy.

In her address, Abu Aita discussed the challenges facing fact-checkers and journalists in Palestine, particularly in terms of physical safety and the targeting by Israeli occupation forces. She also addressed the difficulties in verifying information amid power and internet outages caused by the occupation. Abu Aita explained that social media platforms, especially Meta and TikTok, complicate the work of fact-checkers in Palestine by reducing the reach of relevant posts and blocking other content related to Palestine. TikTok, for instance, deleted Kashif’s account approximately two weeks into the war on Gaza.