Fact-Check Central

Social Media BS Detection - A User's Guide

7) Trustworthy claims will be backed by scholarship

Truth is not fragile, and those who've done their homework have everything to gain from putting their sources and methods on the table. Reliable news will be clearly cited to other legitimate sources--mainstream news outlets, academic institutions, government agencies, and the like. Where science is involved, peer-reviewed research published in reputable journals should be available and will be either cited & linked, or accompanied by enough information to allow one to at least find the abstracts via search engines and/or citation databases. Claims that depend on op-ed and/or parasitic citations to similar forums do so for a reason. Those who cannot provide their own sources and methods should never be taken at face value. And those with a clear agenda who refuse to should be avoided like the plague--especially if they hide their identities as well, or have "Leaks" or "Exposed" anywhere in their names.

8) Google is your friend

The more dramatic a claim is, the more likely it is that it'll get the attention of mainstream media, liberal or otherwise. If Google searches return no mention of it anywhere except at partisan blogs, Facebook pages, and known fake news and fringe websites, it's time to sound BS General Quarters.

9) Online research and debunking tools are your friend

Online databases and encyclopedia like Wikipedia are worth their weight in gold. Wikipedia in particular is built around an editorial/peer review model that goes a long way to eliminating biased and/or incomplete research, and is arguably the most extensive online encyclopedic website in the world. Few if any questions liable to turn up in news stories won't reference subject matter that's treated in depth there, and further cited to other scholarship. Sites devoted to researching urban legends track fake news and social media rumors closely, and little survives their scrutiny. Among the best known and most reliable of these are sites like Snopes (a project of the San Fernando Folklore Society) and FactCheck.org. Both are supported by broadly-based non-partisan research, & subject to rigorous editorial review. A 20-second search at Snopes alone is enough to weed out at least 90% of the inflammatory BS on any social media newsfeed. Reverse image tools such as TinEye can be a great resource too. Searches of an image's address (right-click -> copy link address) there will return other sites where it's been used, complete with dates and times. If someone posts photos of a riot, refugee stampede, or some other incident from two days ago, and the same picture turns up in two-year-old articles about unrelated events it's time to start asking some pointed questions. Sharing any inflammatory claim "trending" on social media without checking resources like these first borders on negligence.

10) Last, but not least, common sense is your friend too

If it sounds like BS, chances are it is. To use one example a Facebook friend shared to my timeline last fall... The Vice President of these United States, with no history of such views, loudly proclaims that all women are lazy... at a campaign rally for a woman POTUS candidate on a major college campus... and two days later not one major news outlet has gotten wind of it... But a handful of websites with names like "100 Percent Fed Up" or "Freedom Daily" have the big scoop for us. Reeeeeally? :D

Online Resources

General Research & Scholarly Searches