Check your facts
December 2020
Isaac Newton taught us that every action is met with an equal and opposite reaction. It seems to me that his law may also apply to the internet; as proof, I offer the birth and growth of online fact-checking organisations.
To paraphrase a near contemporary of Newton’s: it is a fact universally acknowledged that if websites can publish what they want, whenever they want, unchecked and without restraint, and also make it available to everyone in the world, we must be in need of fact checkers.
Of course, this problem is not new, problems relating to human behaviour rarely are. In America, in the late nineteenth century, someone coined the term ’yellow journalism’, to describe sensational reporting aimed at selling newspapers rather than striving for accuracy; That is now called ‘clickbait’ and it’s everywhere online (‘Your jaw will drop when you see what she did…’)
Even 200 years or more earlier, as printing became cheaper and more efficient, there was a huge growth in the publication of pamphlets promoting particular views and sold for profit. Jonathan Swift, for example, was famous for writing them, as was Dr Johnson and many others.
In a sense, they and the yellow journalists were doing just what their successors on Twitter, Facebook and their own websites are doing today; like them, they were expressing a specific opinion, and provoking, even daring, both comment and argument.
The comments certainly come; in past centuries it was in the form of speeches, newspaper articles and counter-pamphlets; today it also comes on Twitter, Facebook and blogs.
There’s little or no restraint to publication today. Even if the regulators of social media notice the misleading, dangerous or just plain false postings and delete them, you can still publish it all on your own website in moments. It may lead to some sort of retribution if you upset someone with deep pockets, or break the law, but it probably won’t.
So, I welcome the rather quiet rise of the independent online fact checker. They have no power, of course, beyond embarrassing a transgressor and putting the record straight. But if you say something that is challenged by one of them you are on thin ice and, if nothing worse, will look a fool.
It’s a tiny industry, at the moment. My favourite example in the UK and by far the biggest (which isn’t saying much, there were only 22 employees in 2019) is fullfact.org. It’s a charity and has a fine reputation for holding politicians and others to account for doubtful claims. It’s always worth looking at their front page for their latest fact checks. Facebook uses them to check some of the posts on that platform.
It’s also worth looking at Politifact.com, another non-profit organisation, based in the USA. It’s a similar size to fullfact.org but focused on politics. Facebook uses them, too. I especially like their accuracy gradations of statements: they score them on one of six levels, from ‘true’ to ‘pants on fire’.
Of course, respectable organisations already take pains to check facts before they publish anything. I’ve been corrected by the admirable team at The Oldie more than once. Big news agencies like AFP (factcheck.afp.com) and Reuters (reuters.com/fact-check) publish fact checks; so does the BBC (bbc.co.uk/news/reality_check).
We should not think that these fact checkers are beyond reproach. It’s the oldest question of all: Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? But their creation is encouraging.
So, for the moment, let’s applaud them. They may be self-appointed, and far from accountable, but they do have reputations to lose; if their fact checking were ever found to be suspect, or biased, they’d quickly wither. I hope this peril will compel them to act with integrity and probity. It would be cheering to think so, anyway.
Some useful links:
International Fact-Checking Network
In 2015, the Poynter institute launched the International Fact-Checking Network, which sets a code of ethics for fact-checking organizations. https://www.poynter.org/ifcn/
Other fact checkers:
Channel 4 - https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/
Fact Check Northern Ireland: https://factcheckni.org/ claims to be is Northern Ireland’s first and only dedicated fact-checking service.
https://www.factcheck.org/ - an American site, a non-profit, claims to monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews and news releases.
