How one journalist is going after false news on Syria

ALEPPO, Syria — Since the outbreak of the revolution in Syria five years ago, various Arab and international media outlets naturally began publishing daily reports about the various political, military and humanitarian developments in the country. Amid the great number of news flashes and articles, the amount of incorrect, distorted and groundless information became noticeable. This gave ​​Syrian journalist Ahmad Primo the idea to launch the platform Verify. Primo spoke to Al-Monitor about the purpose of the platform — “giving the reader correct information that is free of lies and distortion.”

Primo holds a degree in programming and web development and has been working in online media for seven years. He explained that there are many reasons that lead to the spread of false information in the media. Chief among them, Primo said, “Media outlets rush to spread news about Syria. In the absence of censorship, they publish news based on the copy/paste technique without following professional standards to verify whether the news comes from official or reliable sources.”