On 7 January, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the social media giant is ending its eight-year-long partnership with third party fact-checkers in the United States.
Zuckerberg now wants to follow Elon Musk and copy ‘Community Notes’ from X (formerly Twitter) for content moderation.
In his video address, he said:
1. “Even if they accidentally censor just 1% of posts, that’s millions of people, and we’ve reached a point where it’s just too many mistakes and too much censorship.”
2. “The fact-checkers have just been too politically biased and have destroyed more trust than they have created, especially in the U.S.”
This is a good time to share with you what a regular work day in BOOM looks like and our approach to fact-checking.
But first, a bit about BOOM.
We started in 2014 as a broader investigative journalism effort and in our current avatar as a fact-checking organisation since November 2016. We are also:
- One of India's first fact-checking newsrooms, certified by International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN).
- First newsroom from India to partner with Meta in its Third Party Fact-Checking Programme in 2018.
- Available in three languages namely Hindi, English and Bengali with presence in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
So what does fact-checking involve ? Well, it does the following:
- Verification of information on the basis of two or more independent sources.
- Citing tangible evidence in the fact-checks, which can be seen or clicked on.
- Detailing the exact process of investigation, so that any reader can replicate the same process and arrive at the same conclusion. For example, we reveal the tools that we use, the keywords that we use for our searches, etc.
- Verification of direct claims, not opinions. We don’t fact-check grey areas. If something is true today, it has to be true later as well!
How do we decide what to fact-check?
Some of the key parameters that we look for:
- Is the social media post making a direct claim?
- How viral is the claim? Virality = Engagement = Shares/ Views/ Retweets/ Forwards
- What's the impact of the misinformation being shared?
- Does the viral misinformation being shared affect people's lives/ influence opinions?
- Post an investigation, are you getting information that completely debunks the claim?
- Can the claim really be fact-checked?
As fact-checkers, we are completely objective and unbiased in our approach. Hence, we don’t shy away from fact-checking any political party or politician making a misleading claim. For example, we have fact-checked misinformation around/ by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Indian National Congress (INC), Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), among others.
Can our work be biased?
While BOOM recognises that every team member will have their own political views, there is a clear and mandatory requirement to be objective and independent while writing a fact-check story.
Personal biases are weeded out of every story through a clearly laid down process (Read our methodology here) that only looks at the hard facts available.
Every fact-check is a team play with several eyes looking at the same story to avoid the risk of any individual point of view finding its place in the story.
When should you trust a fact-check?
- Check if the fact-check is citing primary sources of information as the evidence. For example, if X media outlet has published a photo but has given the photo credit to another Y outlet, then the Y outlet is the primary source of information. Ideally, the fact-check should have a confirmation from Y outlet.
- Show, not tell: The fact-check should focus more on showing than telling. For example, if a fact-check claims that a viral video dates back to 2020, then it should hyperlink to the website/platform where the video was uploaded in 2020.
- A fact-check should present a holistic view of the incident and not take sides.
- Thumb rule: anyone and everyone can get it wrong.
- We, at BOOM, acknowledge that sometimes we might get it wrong. When we do go wrong, we do not shy away from our mistakes but correct our story promptly and inform our readers about the correction. Stories that have been corrected contain an advisory. We are open to constructive feedback and criticism. For example, in this fact-check, we had inadvertently made an error about the location of the viral video and promptly corrected it with a clear disclaimer in the article.
Do we censor posts?
The short answer is, NO. But let’s explain what we exactly do.
We cannot:
- Remove any social media post on any platform.
- Reduce distribution or visibility of any post that is misleading or contains false information.
We can/do:
- BOOM has a WhatsApp tipline number - 7700906588 - wherein users send their queries or content that they are suspicious about and want it to be verified.
- We fact-check the received content (text, images, videos) and respond to the user with our published article or the most credible/official information we have regarding that particular claim.
- We also have a WhatsApp Channel: BOOM Fact-Check in which we regularly share fact-checks to keep the community informed.
- On Meta, for example, we label posts that contain misleading or false information to provide more context to the users.
- On X (formerly Twitter), fact-checkers may reply to a post carrying misleading information with their published fact-check on it. Earlier, users have put BOOM’s fact-checks as community notes on X.
- On Google, we work with ‘Claim Review.’ Let’s say you run a Google keyword search and come across multiple search results. If one of the search results is a BOOM fact-check, you will notice that under the headline and URL, it will show: Claim, Claimed By, Fact-Check by. This feature is exclusive for fact-checks. It basically helps in differentiating between other links and a fact-check. It is pertinent to mention that Google algorithm tends to rank a fact-check higher than non fact-checks in the search results.
Beyond Writing Fact-Checks:
- At BOOM, we believe that everybody who consumes information is at the risk of being exposed to misinformation. Hence, every individual should be empowered to verify information on their own.
- To facilitate this, BOOM has a dedicated media literacy team that trains journalists, college students, teenagers, senior citizens and the general public in the field of fact-checking and internet safety.
- We conduct regular workshops (offline and online) across the country and have also trained the media fraternity in countries like Bhutan.
- For teenagers specifically, we run the Teen Fact-Checking Network (TFCN): a newsroom of teens, by teens, for teens. We work with a diverse cohort of teenagers and train them into fact-checking, media literacy and internet safety. You can watch their work here.
TL;DR:
- Fact-checkers don’t censor social media posts. They can’t.
- Fact-checking is only a process of verifying a piece of information.
- You don’t have to believe the fact-checker, as an individual, rather read the fact-check and if all your questions are answered, it means it’s a credible fact-check.
Our newsletter 'Verified by BOOM' offers weekly recaps of the biggest misinformation stories and practical tips on identifying and debunking 'fake news'. Subscribe by clicking here to find us in your inbox every Saturday.