Vera Files

Vera Files (stylized as VERA Files) is a non-profit online news organization in the Philippines. It was founded in March 2008 by veteran Filipino journalists, focusing on investigative journalism and in-depth reporting of Philippine social issues.

The organizations specializes in producing "research-intensive and in-depth reports in multiple formats, and the training and mentoring of journalists, students and civil society organizations, especially those whose opportunities for capacity building are scarce."[1]

It released its first story—an exposé on a controversial agreement involving disputed territory—on March 9, 2008. The story was written by Yvonne T. Chua and Ellen Tordesillas and published by GMA News Online and Malaya.[2]

In 2017, Vera Files became the first news organization in the Philippines to be a signatory of the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter.[3]

In April 2018, social media company Facebook tapped Vera Files and news website Rappler to be part of its third-party fact-checking program in the Philippines.[4][5] The program aims to help Facebook flag or identify false news stories shared by people on its social media platform. Facebook Pages that share false news stories repeatedly will also be seen less on people's news feeds. The program, according to Vera File's announcement, “is in line with Facebook’s three-part framework to improve the quality and authenticity of stories in the News Feed.”[4]