Israeli Achiya Schatz created and runs FakeReporter, an online service that ferrets out misinformation and lets the world know when an online story, photo, or video is a lie.

Schatz worked for years at Breaking the Silence, a nonprofit founded by Israeli army vets. They gathered reports from anonymous Israeli soldiers and took them public, letting the nation know when its troops had done unethical things in Gaza and the West Bank. The public reports made the government and the army so angry there was an unsuccessful effort in Israel’s parliament to outlaw the group.

Schatz saw that most of the misinformation Breaking the Silence found was online. He wanted to see an open, honest public exchange online about the nation’s problems. At his FakeReporter, a small staff and thousands of volunteers spot possible fakes and get them analyzed. If they’re indeed lies, FakeReporter works to get them removed from platforms.

Since the war that began in October of 2023, Schatz and his team have been working flat out to stem a tidal wave of misinformation. FakeReporter has called out old footage that purported to be live from Gaza, fake orders from the Israeli government, and fake inflammatory messages from the Israel Defense Force.

Schatz says that the owners of online platforms are finally understanding the seriousness of the problem and their obligation to not spread lies. “We’re seeing violence and lies taken down and disinformation being refuted because of our reports.” But he’s deeply concerned by the stakes when thousands have been killed and there are so many efforts to increase the violence with inflammatory lies.