Iraq launches Muakkad news-verification platform and asks media to use it

BAGHDAD — Iraq’s General Secretariat of the Council of Ministers on Monday launched Muakkad, a government news-verification platform, and asked news outlets and social media pages to check reports with it before publishing them.

The secretariat, the cabinet’s administrative office, called Muakkad (Arabic for “confirmed”) the country’s first government digital platform dedicated to checking news. It said the platform would track circulating reports and answer what it called false news and rumors from a central system.

The platform will coordinate information-sharing among state institutions and issue clarifications based on official sources, the secretariat’s Government Media and Communication Office said in a statement. The aim is to answer false information faster and limit its spread through media outlets and social media, while respecting professional standards, privacy and the law, it said.

The statement presented the launch as part of a wider government push for transparency, accurate information and public trust in state institutions. Misleading reports confuse the public and harm the public interest, it said, which calls for a coordinated response from government agencies.

The secretariat asked news organizations, journalists and administrators of social media pages to work with Muakkad and treat it as an official reference when checking information before publishing or resharing it. It also urged outlets to contact the media office directly to help with verification and corrections.

The statement did not say who runs the platform, how outlets or members of the public can submit claims for checking, or whether consulting it is voluntary.

The launch comes a week after the government ordered state institutions to file criminal complaints against anyone using the media to incite violence, back weapons outside state control or support outlawed groups. The Interior Ministry has had a Disinformation Combat Unit in its media department since at least 2023.

The Defense of Free Expression Coalition, an Iraqi rights group, said in December 2025 that efforts against false information “must not become a pretext to restrict freedoms, limit legitimate criticism, or pursue political opposition, activists, and journalists.”