Alexios Mantzarlis

Hi! I've spent the past decade working on the challenge of online misinformation and content moderation.

I am currently a principal on the Google Trust & Safety Intelligence team, focusing on misinformation and adversarial testing of emerging generative AI risks. I was previously a manager on the product policy team for Google Search, which is responsible for writing content policies for the search engine. Among other things, I led Search product policy's response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

I first joined Google in August 2019 as the News and Information Credibility Lead. In that role, I led efforts to highlight fact checks to users in product (1, 2, 3), and share information on their reach. I was also responsible for initiatives supporting the fact-checking ecosystem’s response to the COVID-19 infodemic (1, 2). My blog post with tips to spot misinformation was featured on the Google homepage globally for International Fact-Checking Day in 2021.

From February to July 2019 I was a TED fellow researching whether the public can be meaningfully included in decision-making about information quality on the major platforms.

From September 2015 to February 2019, I was the founding director of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), the global coalition of fact-checking projects. In 2022, the Former Minister of Culture and Equality of Norway Trine Skei Grande nominated the IFCN for the Nobel Peace prize.

As Director of the IFCN, I  helped draft the fact-checkers' code of principles, shepherded a seminal partnership between fact-checkers and Facebook, testified to the Italian Chamber of Deputies on the "fake news" phenomenon and helped launch International Fact-Checking Day.  I also organized the annual Global Fact-Checking Summit, the premier conference on the topic.

I previously served as Managing Editor of Pagella Politica, Italy's main political fact-checking website. While at Pagella Politica, I got to present weekly fact-checking segments on Virus, a prime time talk show airing on the national broadcaster RAI 2.

My expertise has been recognized by several international institutions. In 2018 I was invited to join the European Union's High Level Group on fake news and online disinformation and to draft a lesson plan for UNESCO. 

My publications include a chapter on fact-checking in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections in Truth Counts, a study on Zika and fake news published by the American Journal of Health Education, and another study on the mission and priorities of fact-checking sites published by Political Quarterly.

I've been quoted extensively on media outlets around the world including Al Jazeera, The Atlantic, BBC, Folha de S. Paulo, Le Monde, NPR and The Washington Post.

Before becoming a fact-checker, I worked for the United Nations and the Italian Institute for International Political Studies.