Fact-Checking as Epistemic Infrastructure: From Journalistic Gatekeeping to Platform Governance

In algorithmically mediated societies, fact-checking has transitioned from a journalistic corrective to a foundational infrastructure shaping how public knowledge and civic trust are produced. This study explores how verification practices are increasingly embedded in sociotechnical systems that blur the boundaries between human discretion and algorithmic decision-making. Situating fact-checking at the intersection of media theory and political communication, the analysis examines the epistemic role of human fact-checkers, the rise of hybrid human-AI verification models, and the global institutionalization of fact-checking networks. Special attention is given to the ethical, cultural, and procedural tensions that arise as verification systems are reconfigured through platform governance, algorithmic opacity, and shifting audience expectations. This study conceptualizes it as a proactive, pluralistic form of civic epistemology—one that must reconcile speed with transparency, automation with human judgment, and global standards with local knowledge cultures. Methodologically, it adopts a theory-building approach grounded in conceptual synthesis and multi-level analysis across micro, meso, and macro domains.