Fact-checking: importance for business and basic rules of implementation
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 4:32 am
What is it? Fact-checking is the verification of information in a media article or blog post to promote a business. The consequences of ignoring it can be quite dire: loss of reputation, decreased sales, and even website blocking and fines.
How to conduct? There are several fact-checking tools. The main one is a critical approach to information and its constant analysis. To conduct the latter, you can use various services.
The article explains:
The essence of fact-checking
How important is fact-checking?
What exactly to check
Analysis during fact-checking
Fact-checking tools
Express fact-checking
The Importance of Fact-Checking for Search Engines
Legal Consequences of Poor Fact-Checking
The Business Consequences of Poor Fact-Checking
5 Scenarios for Using Neural Networks to Increase Website Conversion by 40%
Download for free
The essence of fact-checking
Translated from English, “fact” loan database means “information”, “checking” means “verification”. Thus, the word fact-checking (FC) implies data control.
The essence of fact-checking
To check, you must first turn to reliable sources and exclude dubious information. For successful fact-checking, you must follow several principles:
Independence. The auditor must not be in any way subordinate to persons interested in distorting information and must not use several independent sources.
Impartiality. The auditor must not have a personal interest in the results of the audit and must be guided only by objective information.
Accuracy. No indirect information or data from unknown sources may be used.
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How important is fact-checking?
To illustrate the practical importance of fact-checking, let us look at a number of examples in which poor quality checking led to serious negative consequences:
In response to unverified information, Pakistan told Israeli representatives that it was ready to use nuclear weapons.
In December 2016, the AWD News website reported that the Israeli Defense Minister had expressed his readiness to use nuclear weapons to destroy the Islamabad group if it sent its army into Syria. In response to the same position, Pakistan's Khawaja Asif said that his country also had this type of weaponry and was ready to respond in the event of an attack.
It later emerged that the Israeli Defense Ministry had not issued the statements that prompted the incident. In addition, the publication on AWD News was assigned to Moshe Ya'alon, who was no longer the head of the ministry at the time the news was posted. Inaccuracies were also made regarding other officials mentioned in the article.
After these circumstances were identified, the conflict was resolved.
How important is fact-checking?
Edgar Welch began shooting guns, justifying his actions with a conspiracy theory.
The incident took place in the US, in the state of Washington. Edgar Welch came to the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria and opened fire indiscriminately. There were no killed or wounded, the shooter was arrested. The reason for such actions was "pizzagate" - a conspiracy theory according to which former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is connected to a pedophile society and the owner of the Comet Ping Pong chain. Welch agreed to lay down his arms only after he personally made sure that there were no illegally detained children in the pizzeria.
The above conspiracy theory arose during the 2016 election campaign after Wikileaks published correspondence from Hillary Clinton's campaign headquarters. Users believed that certain phrases in the messages were code words and related to pedophilia. Of course, there was no objective confirmation of this version, but this information went to the masses and was distributed on the web resources 4chan and Reddit.
How to conduct? There are several fact-checking tools. The main one is a critical approach to information and its constant analysis. To conduct the latter, you can use various services.
The article explains:
The essence of fact-checking
How important is fact-checking?
What exactly to check
Analysis during fact-checking
Fact-checking tools
Express fact-checking
The Importance of Fact-Checking for Search Engines
Legal Consequences of Poor Fact-Checking
The Business Consequences of Poor Fact-Checking
5 Scenarios for Using Neural Networks to Increase Website Conversion by 40%
Download for free
The essence of fact-checking
Translated from English, “fact” loan database means “information”, “checking” means “verification”. Thus, the word fact-checking (FC) implies data control.
The essence of fact-checking
To check, you must first turn to reliable sources and exclude dubious information. For successful fact-checking, you must follow several principles:
Independence. The auditor must not be in any way subordinate to persons interested in distorting information and must not use several independent sources.
Impartiality. The auditor must not have a personal interest in the results of the audit and must be guided only by objective information.
Accuracy. No indirect information or data from unknown sources may be used.
Read also!
"USP examples to help you come up with your own that's even better"
Read more
How important is fact-checking?
To illustrate the practical importance of fact-checking, let us look at a number of examples in which poor quality checking led to serious negative consequences:
In response to unverified information, Pakistan told Israeli representatives that it was ready to use nuclear weapons.
In December 2016, the AWD News website reported that the Israeli Defense Minister had expressed his readiness to use nuclear weapons to destroy the Islamabad group if it sent its army into Syria. In response to the same position, Pakistan's Khawaja Asif said that his country also had this type of weaponry and was ready to respond in the event of an attack.
It later emerged that the Israeli Defense Ministry had not issued the statements that prompted the incident. In addition, the publication on AWD News was assigned to Moshe Ya'alon, who was no longer the head of the ministry at the time the news was posted. Inaccuracies were also made regarding other officials mentioned in the article.
After these circumstances were identified, the conflict was resolved.
How important is fact-checking?
Edgar Welch began shooting guns, justifying his actions with a conspiracy theory.
The incident took place in the US, in the state of Washington. Edgar Welch came to the Comet Ping Pong pizzeria and opened fire indiscriminately. There were no killed or wounded, the shooter was arrested. The reason for such actions was "pizzagate" - a conspiracy theory according to which former US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is connected to a pedophile society and the owner of the Comet Ping Pong chain. Welch agreed to lay down his arms only after he personally made sure that there were no illegally detained children in the pizzeria.
The above conspiracy theory arose during the 2016 election campaign after Wikileaks published correspondence from Hillary Clinton's campaign headquarters. Users believed that certain phrases in the messages were code words and related to pedophilia. Of course, there was no objective confirmation of this version, but this information went to the masses and was distributed on the web resources 4chan and Reddit.