LibGuides: Fake News &amp; Misinformation: How to Spot and Verify: Fact Checking Websites

Fact Checkers and Sites About Fact-Checking

The proliferation of news sources and satire, as well as the ease and speed of social media — combined with readers' short attention spans and tendency to just read the headlines make it easy for readers to fall for fake news. Some websites have taken on the mission of fact-checking rumors, health claims, and political claims -- particularly those that show up often in social media.

Duke Reporter's Lab: Fact Checking News and Global Fact Checking Sites
Displays interactive world map. The Reporters’ Lab explores new forms of journalism, including fact-checking, which is growing around the world, empowering democracies and holding governments accountable (Stanford School of Public Policy).
FactCheck.org
A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center. Also includes SciCheck for science claims.
Full Fact, based in UK
Bad information ruins lives. We’re a team of independent fact checkers and campaigners who find, expose and counter the harm it does. See: https://fullfact.org/about/
Ground News: News Comparison Platform
Download the app for Android, iOS, or use the web version.
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Ground News founders Harleen Kaur and Sukh Singh wanted a simple way to get full-picture news. Out of frustration with a fragmented and misleading industry, these two media outsiders aimed to create a platform for news that was both comprehensive and neutral. The siblings are now joined by a slightly larger team who all believe that given the tools, people are smart enough to filter the news for themselves.
How to Fact-Check Images with Google
A quick video demo of how Google's reverse image search tool can be used to fact-check and research images.
Lead Stories
Established in 2015, Lead Stories intentionally seeks out viral stories using software and debunks them as fast as possible.
Media Bias / Fact Check
MBFC News is dedicated to educating the public on media bias and deceptive news practices.
Media Smarts, Canada's Centre for Digital and Media Literacy
Misinformation and Disinformation: A Guide for Protecting Yourself
Written By: Security.org Team | Published: August 16, 2021 --- "Misinformation and disinformation (MDI) presents a challenge to American and other democracies. In this guide, you’ll learn what MDI is, and how to protect yourself, your children, and your loved ones. In addition, we provide resources on fact-checking, prevention and reporting misinformation."
The News Literacy Project
NPR Politics Fact Check
PolitiFact
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize. PolitiFact is a fact-checking website that rates the accuracy of claims by elected officials and others who speak up in American politics. PolitiFact is run by editors and reporters from the Tampa Bay Times, an independent newspaper in Florida. PolitiFact staffers research statements and rate their accuracy on the Truth-O-Meter, from True to False. The most ridiculous falsehoods get the lowest rating, Pants on Fire.
Rumor vs.Reality Cards, Reality Team
Snopes
Founded by David Mikkelson, a project begun in 1994 as an expression of his interest in researching urban legends that has since grown into the oldest and largest fact-checking site on the Internet, one widely regarded by journalists, folklorists, and laypersons alike as one of the world’s essential resources. Read about methodology and rating system at http://www.snopes.com/about-snopes/
Turn Students into Fact-Finding Web Detectives
Common Sense Education.
The Washington Post's Fact Checker
What to Expect: Elections, Pen America
Disinformation threatens our democracy. Here’s what to expect when you’re electing—and how to fight back against misleading information.

Fact checking: Science and Medicine

Retraction Watch
Reports on retractions of peer-reviewed scientific journal articles.
SciCheck
FactCheck.org’s SciCheck feature focuses exclusively on false and misleading scientific claims that are made by partisans to influence public policy.

Fake Fact Checking and Fake News Sites

“Fake news websites (also referred to as hoax news) deliberately publish hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation — using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect" (Wikipedia).

The proliferation of news sources and satire, as well as the ease and speed of social media — combined with readers' short attention spans and tendency to just read the headlines make it easy for readers to fall for fake news. ("Everyone can be duped by fake news, experts say as satire sites multiply").

List of fake news sites, Wikipedia
Snopes’ Field Guide to Fake News Sites and Hoax Purveyors
Snopes.com's updated guide to the internet's clickbaiting, news-faking, social media exploiting dark side.

Investigate Quotes

"A Lie Can Travel Halfway Around the World While the Truth Is Putting On Its Shoes" - did Mark Twain say this?
Quote Investigator
The Quote Investigator: Exploring the Origins of Quotations (blog)
This blog records the investigatory work of Garson O’Toole who diligently seeks the truth about quotations. Who really said what? This question often cannot be answered with complete finality, but approximate solutions can be iteratively improved over time.
Quotes Uncovered: How Lies Travel
That Wasn’t Mark Twain: How a Misquotation Is Born
Niraj Chokshi. New York Times, April 26, 2017.

How search engines spread misinformation

Filter Bubble, Wikipedia
"A filter bubble is a state of intellectual isolation that can result from personalized searches when a website algorithm selectively guesses what information a user would like to see based on information about the user, such as location, past click-behavior and search history."
The Miseducation of Dylann Roof
Southern Poverty Law Center, January 17, 2017
Google search algorithms are not impartial. They can be biased, just like their designers
How Google's search algorithm spreads false information with a rightwing bias
How Google is tackling fake news, and why it should not do it alone
Search Engine Land, Nov. 30, 2016. Columnist Ian Bowden illustrates some ways the search giant can tackle -- and already is tackling -- this problem.
Fighting Fake News With SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
Offers suggestions for how search engines can help users separate facts from “alternative facts.”

New Developments

The lessons of Squash, the first automated fact-checking platform
Article by Bill Adair from the Poynter Institute, June 16, 2021.