In late-July, the US-funded CambodiaCheck project would be launched to counter misinformation surrounding the Kingdom. Less than a month later, the fact checking initiative would be cut short, standing accused of spreading the very thing it set out to counter.

Visit the CambodiaCheck website today and you’re greeted with a yellow-on-black “Under Construction: Work in Progress” sign. In reality, the work in question has come and gone, the short-lived fact checking scheme having already met its untimely demise.

First announced in April this year, the US Embassy-funded project was launched with an online press conference on July 27. It aspired to “counter misinformation about Cambodia, helping to promote better image and understanding of the kingdom” ahead of the country assuming the role of ASEAN chair in 2022.

But it would be less than a month later, on August 25, that CambodiaCheck’s website would greet visitors with an alert announcing the project’s cessation. Having released only three of five planned articles, the end was marked, somewhat ironically, with a vaguely worded statement that revealed little about the true nature of what unfolded:

“Thank you for visiting the CambodiaCheck digital platform, a six-month pilot initiative to mitigate misinformation in the context of Cambodia. Implemented as a limited, time-bound activity by The Asia Foundation in partnership with Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace [CICP], the project has since concluded.”

A week later, even this was gone – and along with it any trace of the small body of heavily criticised research produced over the project’s short life. Wiped from existence, swept under a digital rug, its backers were seemingly keen to pretend CambodiaCheck had never happened.