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We explain what fact-checking is and how businesses can use it to create quality content and avoid screw-ups.

In March 2023, a photo of the Pope in a voluminous Balenciaga-style down jacket went viral online. Many media outlets quickly turned the sensation into loud headlines. At the same time, not only ordinary users, but also celebrities began to discuss and praise the stylish image of the pontiff on social networks. As it turned out later, it was a fake generated by the Midjourney neural network.

Photo of the Pope generated by the Midjourney neural network
The situation is funny, but for the reputation of both the head of the Catholic Church and the publications that picked up the fake without checking, everything could have ended badly. Journalists were not even embarrassed that the “photos” were posted on the Reddit portal in a subsection called “Midjourney”. Also, no one noticed that the pope in the picture was missing several fingers.

This case showed shopify website design that with the development of neural networks, everyone will have to improve their fact-checking skills to combat disinformation.


WHAT IS FACT CHECKING AND WHY IS IT NEEDED?
Fact-checking is checking the reliability of the information used. To write an article, note, post on a social network and other materials, you need not only to collect data and beautifully package it into a text, but also to check it in advance. Here, it is important for the copywriter and the reader to be able to separate fact from opinion:



A fact is information whose reliability is strictly established. Often interpreted as a synonym for truth.

Fact checking: example of a fact
An opinion is a subjective assessment that reflects individual perception.

Fact-checking: an example of an opinion
The facts in the text must not be distorted or interpreted in your own way. Just one such mistake can lead to a deterioration in the brand's reputation. Customers will stop trusting a company that publishes and distributes false information, misleads everyone, and promotes a subjective assessment of reality. Here it is worth citing the famous statement of the American statesman Daniel Patrick Moynihan:

“Every person has the right to his own opinion, but he cannot have his own facts.”

FACT CHECKING CHECKLIST
There are several fact-checking rules that you should always keep in mind when working with text. Let's look at the most popular ones:

1. Read the text in its entirety, and don’t rely on its title.
To attract readers' attention, clickbait or so-called shocking information is often used, which is not confirmed in the text. It is this kind of screaming headline that should make you doubt the veracity of the information.

Example of a clickbait headline
2. Study the reputation of the resource that publishes the information.
How long ago were these resources created?
Are these sources familiar to you?
What is their coverage?
Can third party users edit information?
Doesn't the resource specialize in fakes (like the satirical publication Panorama)
In order not to fall for a source with obviously false information, you should always look at the address bar. As a rule, parasitic sites use “lo” and “co” in it, write the names of well-known resources, but with omissions or rearrangement of letters.

Here you need to take the following rule: no two sources, no proof of the veracity of the information. You can't refer to just one resource, you need to take into account at least two independent of each other.
3. Establish and verify the original source.
If the text refers to documents, statistics or quotes from famous people, make sure that it is not the author’s invention. Every piece of information has a starting point, so it is important to have a clear understanding of where the “legs grow from”.

4. Pay attention to the author of the text.
Check whether the author of the text is a newbie or an expert in this field, whether he/she has other publications on similar topics. If contacts are left, you can contact the author and ask to confirm the information.

An example of a questionable source of information:

An example of a dubious source of information
5. Take into account different points of view.
A person trusts more the information channel that best matches his beliefs. This is how an “information bubble” is formed. Our understanding of the world narrows because we listen to sources that broadcast only one view of the situation. And here it is important to keep in mind that for an objective assessment it is necessary to consider several points of view: study the comments of two or more experts, find out the opinions of all participants in the event.

6. Study the attached images in detail.
It is important to consider whether all the photographs are genuine, whether there are any signs of manipulation, whether they have been taken out of context.

7. Always remain impartial.
When creating a text or reading it, one should avoid personal bias. One should remain skeptical and not be led by value judgments.

8. Remember to verify information.
It is always necessary to check the correct spelling of names, positions, and abbreviations.

No matter how many fact-checking rules there are, your main weapon in the fight against fake information remains doubt. You can’t blindly believe all the information in the media space, you need to be able to analyze it.

USEFUL SITES AND SERVICES FOR FACT-CHECKING
There are many services and websites that simplify and reduce the time required to perform fact-checking.

Text check:

We check the data of scientific articles on Elibrary, Cyberleninka
We study marketing research from Mediascope, Brand Analytics
Official documents, laws and regulations can be found on the websites ConsultantPlus, Garant.ru
We check medical information on the official WHO website
We are looking for information on social research on the VTsIOM website
The following services are suitable for checking statistics: fedstat.ru, Statistika.ru, Crimestat.ru, Gks.ru
Image check:

Where the image was originally published will be shown by tineye.com
And the Forensically service will indicate that the image has been edited.
Now, special services that deal with fact-checking are becoming increasingly popular. Among Russian-language ones, one can single out the telegram channel “Zlaya Verochnaya”, where both text and visual refutations of fakes are published. All this can and should be used in your work to disseminate only correct information.


SIGNS OF FAKE INFORMATION AND HOW IT HARMS BUSINESS
Fakes are a popular phenomenon in the modern media space. The audience, which is unable to distinguish true information from false, itself becomes the main distributor of false information.

But it is still possible to recognize and expose fakes. To do this, you need to know all the “red flags” that will signal fabricated facts in the text:

Contains information that evokes strong emotions: surprise, indignation, fear, shock.
There is no indication of specific names and surnames of people. Instead, there is a generalization of the persons who reported the information (“they say…”, “it is generally accepted…”).
Events are mentioned that did not happen in reality.
Evaluative vocabulary is used, “labels” are attached, and a point of view is defended that is only beneficial to the author.
Quotes are given without indicating the source, or a link is given to non-existent authorities (fake account).
Guesses and speculations are presented as facts.
There are few resources where this information has been published.
Using Photoshop in attached photos.
The text contains typos, speech and punctuation errors, and uses incorrect statistics.
CASE


The spread of false information can cause significant losses to an individual or an entire company. Consider the story of the British Metro Bank. Its reputation suffered as a result of the spread of fake news on WhatsApp and Twitter that the organization was close to collapse and that all funds should be withdrawn as soon as possible.

Metro Bank suffered due to fakes
CASE


Another well-known fake in the business environment was the dissemination of information about the resignation of the financial director of the French construction company Vinci. The fabricated press release contained a link to a website that imitated the real one, as well as a fake phone number for Vinci's press secretary Paul-Alexis Bouquet. Due to the false information, the company's shares fell, and it lost about seven billion euros.
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