One of the main hindrances to the success of automated fact-checking is the need for more fact checks and fact-checkers, Duke Reporters’ Lab director Bill Adair said at Wednesday’s IFCN Talk. Adair, along with reporters lab lead technologist Christ
Publication: fact checking
Poynter→ The World Health Organization isn’t trying to ban women ages 18-50 from drinking alcohol
A proposed global action plan on alcohol consumption put together by the World Health Organization is being criticized after some believed the health agency was effectively trying to ban women “of childbearing age” from being able to drink
Poynter→ Trump lost. Yet the 2020 election falsehoods thrive in Arizona’s review of ballots.
Republicans in Arizona are still pushing the myth that President Joe Biden stole the 2020 election — a falsehood that ultimately culminated in the Jan. 6 violent attack on the U.S. Capitol. The falsehood lives on in the review of about 2.1 million ba
Poynter→ How should top-tier sports handle the coronavirus?
As coronavirus vaccination rates rise and the United States opens up after a lengthy pandemic, one of the emerging flashpoints involves elite sports. The questions sports teams and leagues are facing are the same types of questions that are puzzling bu
Poynter→ How a GOP Senate resolution condemning critical race theory distorts the facts
In America’s fraught debate over race and justice, a blend of Republicans, libertarians and conservatives have focused their ire on critical race theory. It’s not a well-defined target. Supporters describe critical race theory as a collection of id
Poynter→ What we can learn from the media’s dismissal of the Wuhan lab theory
For more than a year, the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic began with the leak of a previously unknown coronavirus from a laboratory at China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology in late 2019 was roundly, even vociferously, dismissed by many scientists and
Poynter→ Election fraud claims proliferate in Germany, Peru and Brazil
Factually is a newsletter about fact-checking and misinformation from Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network. Sign up here to receive it on your email every Thursday. A fraudulent export As the debate in the United States rages over the voting
Poynter→ The lessons of Squash, the first automated fact-checking platform
Squash began as a crazy dream. Soon after I started PolitiFact in 2007, readers began suggesting a cool but far-fetched idea. They wanted to see our fact checks pop up on live TV. That kind of automated fact-checking wasn’t possible with the technolo
Poynter→ Donald Trump says he was ‘right about everything.’ Is he right about being right?
Former President Donald Trump recently released a statement claiming he was “right about everything” that critics said he was wrong on. Is he right about being right? We looked through the 10 points in Trump’s June 12 statement and found
Poynter→ ‘There will always be claims of cheating’ in elections, but fact-checkers can work together to fight back
Fact-checkers emphasized Tuesday the importance of collaboration in protecting election integrity and fighting back against false accusations of fraud. Speaking at Tuesday’s IFCN Talk, Gilberto Scofield Jr., business and development director for the
Poynter→ Can President Joe Biden actually cancel student loan debt with an executive order?
Can President Joe Biden cancel student loan debt with an executive order? Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said in multiple press conferences that Biden can wipe away such debt with a “flick of a pen.” Canceling student deb
Poynter→ The news conference attendee who told Kamala Harris ‘I voted for you’ was not a reporter
An incident at a June 8, 2021, press conference with Vice President Kamala Harris in Mexico City turned heads among journalists and non-journalists alike. But what appeared to be a breach of professional ethics turned out to be a case of misidentificat
Poynter→ Facebook acknowledges politicians can harm, but won’t let them be fact-checked
Factually is a newsletter about fact-checking and misinformation from Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network. Sign up here to receive it on your email every Thursday. What’s the harm? Last week’s announcement by Facebook that it would keep
Poynter→ Anthony Bourdain did not tweet about eating bat soup in Wuhan
The late celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain, who traveled the world as the host of “No Reservations,” and “Parts Unknown,” visited Sichuan, China in 2016, eating duck-intestine hot pot and a spicy chicken specialty called lazi
Poynter→ WhatsApp can be a black box of misinformation, but Maldita may have opened a window
Private messaging apps like WhatsApp have always presented challenges for fact-checkers. Unlike Facebook and Twitter, where fact-checkers can use third-party software to track the virality of misinformation tropes, WhatsApp’s end-to-end encryption ke
Poynter→ Central America’s prevailing conditions and how they drive people to the US
Ask Americans why Central American immigrants are arriving at the southern U.S. border in ever-larger numbers, and some will say it’s lax border enforcement, disregard for the law and the temptations of U.S. jobs and generous welfare benefits. Others
Poynter→ The riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was not a ‘completely peaceful protest’
INSURRECTION DEBUNKED,” begins a June 1 headline on the blog Gateway Pundit. “New video shows completely peaceful protest inside US Capitol on Jan. 6.” The footage shows people milling around the Capitol, some carrying Trump flags
Poynter→ A New York Times photo error provoked social media criticism about a Gazan child
Nearly 70 children were reported to have been killed during an 11-day battle in May between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza. 67 were killed in Israeli air strikes in Gaza. Two children were killed in Israel from rockets sent by
Poynter→ Fact-checking census shows slower growth
Fact-checkers are now found in at least 102 countries — more than half the nations in the world. The latest census by the Duke Reporters’ Lab identified 341 active fact-checking projects, up 51 from last June’s report. But after years of steady a
Poynter→ Factually: News was a potent cure for the infodemic, report says
Factually is a newsletter about fact-checking and misinformation from Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network. Sign up here to receive it on your email every Thursday. News you can use Last week, a report from the Reuters Institute for the Stud
Poynter→ No, emails to Dr. Anthony Fauci don’t show early agreement that virus was human-made
The release of thousands of emails to and from U.S. infectious disease chief Dr. Anthony Fauci has fueled claims that the virus behind COVID-19 was man-made. BuzzFeed and The Washington Post received the emails in response to a Freedom of Informatio
Poynter→ Dominion’s defamation lawsuit against Giuliani, Powell remains active, despite claims of otherwise
Two of Donald Trump’s lawyers, Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell, repeatedly pushed conspiracy theories and baseless claims about the 2020 presidential election, leading Dominion Voting Systems to sue them for defamation. Over the Memorial Day week
Poynter→ COVID-19 vaccines do not create coronavirus variants
This is a new one. Instead of the established understanding that vaccines help reduce the spread of COVID-19, and thereby decrease the likelihood that the virus will be able to mutate enough to create new variants, a new claim circulating online posits
Poynter→ Should I get a COVID-19 vaccination? Here are some answers to common questions about vaccines.
Lots of people still have questions about the COVID-19 vaccines. What’s in them? Who developed them? Do they have legal liability? Are they effective? These are some of the questions we came across in a recent Instagram post that lists things ̶
Poynter→ Factually: Repeat misinformation offenders get their wings clipped on Facebook
Factually is a newsletter about fact-checking and misinformation from Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network. Sign up here to receive it on your email every Thursday. Take care before you share Facebook announced Wednesday it would begin limit
Poynter→ There’s no proof that COVID-19 vaccine has injured or killed 943 kids
Two weeks after Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine was cleared for use in adolescents, newly reported clinical trial results show Moderna’s vaccine is also highly effective for 12- to 17-year-olds, a hopeful sign for parents who are eager to get their kid
Poynter→ Why did the federal guidance about wearing face masks change?
To say that federal guidance on mask-wearing has been confusing would be an understatement. Back in 2020, during the earliest days of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., mask-wearing was discouraged. Then officials changed this guidance, citing clea
Poynter→ Brand over substance may determine the public’s perception of news articles, study says
The public’s perception of a news outlet’s trustworthiness may come down to branding rather than content, according to a recently released study from the Knight Foundation and Gallup. The study used data from a specially designed news aggregation p
Poynter→ Can scientific uncertainties about COVID-19 be fact-checked?
The coronavirus pandemic and COVID-19 have brought hardships from the deaths of loved ones to economic struggles to social isolation. Everyone has been touched by it. Fact-checkers went from knowing almost nothing about a strange new virus to monitorin
Poynter→ Apply now to be a MediaWise Campus Correspondent for the next school year
Poynter’s MediaWise is looking for a select group of college students to serve in our next cohort of Campus Correspondents. These unique fact-finding students earn money while debunking misinformation online — and teach their peers to do that same.
Poynter→ What is critical race theory, and why are conservatives blocking it?
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, is pushing forward on a reworked civics education curriculum for K-12 students. For DeSantis, the new plan is as much on what it bans, as what it promotes. “Let me be clear, there’s no room in our cl
Poynter→ There’s no proof that hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin caused a drop in cases in India
On May 17, The New York Times reported that the coronavirus crisis was so severe in India, with about 23 million infections confirmed, that the country was accounting for more than half of the world’s daily COVID-19 cases. The same day, The Gateway
Poynter→ Ballot drop boxes were popular in 2020. Then they became a GOP target.
As the U.S. Postal Service struggled and COVID-19 raged, millions of 2020 voters chose to return their mail ballots using official ballot drop boxes rather than risk unreliable mail delivery or crowded spaces. These drop boxes — often big, sturdy, sl
Poynter→ Factually: Teen fact-checkers highlight the 5 biggest misinformation trends
Factually is a newsletter about fact-checking and misinformation from Poynter’s International Fact-Checking Network. Sign up here to receive it on your email every Thursday. Teens’ Top 5 The MediaWise Teen Fact-Checking Network, a team of teenagers
Poynter→ Don Lemon isn’t leaving CNN and his show hasn’t been canceled. It just has a new name.
CNN anchor Don Lemon inadvertently set off a frenzy of misinformation when he made comments about the future of his prime-time show during a segment on May 14. “It’s been really, really great,” Lemon says. “This is the last night t
Poynter→ There’s no clear evidence that generous unemployment benefits deter people from taking jobs
Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, Washington has committed over half a trillion dollars to cushion laid-off workers from economic pain. The most recent move came in the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that added $300 a week to unemployment c
Poynter→ What we know and don’t know about the origins of COVID-19
Confronting Dr. Anthony Fauci at a Senate committee hearing on the COVID-19 pandemic, Sen. Rand Paul argued that the United States collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China to make a more deadly coronavirus. The Kentucky Republican m
Poynter→ Removal of Liz Cheney from House leadership is only one piece of GOP coalescing around the ‘Big Lie’
The Republican Party’s crusade to enforce allegiance to former President Donald Trump claimed its most high-profile victim this week when Rep. Liz Cheney, Wyoming’s reliably conservative congresswoman and its sole representative in the House, was s
Snopes→ Michigan Republican Wants to Register Fact-Checkers
The “Fact Checker Registration Act," would force journalists and others who perform fact checks to register with the state and insure themselves with a $1 million fidelity bond.
Poynter→ How big is the threat of inflation in the post-pandemic era?
Inflation — a phenomenon that most Americans haven’t had to think about much for a decade or two — has reemerged as a concern as the economy recovers from the coronavirus pandemic. On May 12, the government announced that the consumer price index