Alexios Mantzarlis

Policy advisor, Google

Alexios Mantzarlis has spent the better part of the past decade working on fact-checking and the challenge of online misinformation.

Mantzarlis is currently working on product policy for Google Search.

Mantzarlis first joined Google in August 2019 as the News and Information Credibility Lead. In that role, he led efforts to highlight fact checks to users in product (1, 2, 3), and share information on their reach. He was also responsible for initiatives supporting the fact-checking ecosystem’s response to the COVID-19 infodemic (1, 2). His 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 Alexios 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, Mantzarlis  joined Poynter to become the founding director of the International Fact-Checking Network, the global coalition of fact-checking projects.

As Director of the IFCN, he 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. He also organized the annual Global Fact-Checking Summit, the premier conference on the topic.

Alexios has trained hundreds of journalists — from Singapore to Buenos Aires, and from Nashville to Milan — on tools and methodologies to combat misinformation.