What's New
This page lists Fact Check Tools release notes.
Getting Started
To access the Fact Check Tools you must provide a Google account email address to your website administrator to be added to your site's search console (instructions below).
More on Google Accounts
If your email address is a GSuite email or you've already associated a Google account with it, then you are all set. Not sure? You can create a Google account using your existing email via this page by selecting "Use my current email address instead": https://accounts.google.com/SignUp.
Fact Check Explorer
Goal
This tool allows you to easily browse and search for fact checks. For example, you can search for a politician's statement, or for a topic. You can also restrict results to a specific publisher.
What can I search for?
You can search by keywords and see a list of matching claims and the corresponding fact checks.
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Keywords can be anything from specific topics to full politician quotes. Basically anything you would also put into the regular Google Search bar.
You can also search for fact checks related to an image (see next answer).
Can I search by image?
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Why don't I see the image context tab?
The image context functionality is currently available only to beta testers. To apply to become a beta tester, submit the image search beta tester signup form. We will notify applicants of acceptance via email. Once you receive the email, confirm you are signed into the account provided in your application to ensure that the image context tab appears (see More on Google Accounts).
If an incorrect email was provided, see the next question for how to change it.
How do I change the email address I submitted for the image context beta?
Use the same form as you originally used to submit your beta application. If you get the message "You've already responded", click on the "Edit your response" link within the form:
When you're editing the form, note that the field you need to change is the one labelled "Your email (associated with a gmail account)", not the earlier fields indicating how you are currently logged in:
If you instead get a new empty form, submit the form again with the correct email.
Why do I get a "Could not find image" error for valid image URLs?
When fetching images from URLs, Google cannot guarantee that the request will be completed. The request might fail if the specified host denies the request (for example, due to request throttling or DoS prevention), or if Google throttles requests to the site for abuse prevention. In case of such errors, save the image to your hard drive and upload it to the tool.
What if the input image has a lot of text?
The image matching algorithms are designed to be robust when comparing different variants of the image (collages, cropping, overlays, etc.). However, some images with significant textual content may not return matches even if a known fact check exists. This is a known issue and we are actively researching solutions. In the meantime, it may help to crop the image to include as little text as possible.
How do I view the input image?
Hover over the thumbnail in the search bar to see a larger version of the input image:
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Which images are included in the corpus?
We rely on the open web for our content and we can only ingest publicly available and crawlable images. Fact check search returns fact checks if they are published in claim review schema and meet the guidelines for being displayed in Search or YouTube.
Why is the image thumbnail in the fact check result different from the input image?
This can happen if the matched image source is not readily available (e.g. if the social media post has been blocked or throttled by the service). In this case we display the most prominent thumbnail from the fact check page.
Do you use MediaReview for Fact Check Search?
We ingest MediaReview markup submitted via the FactCheck Markup Tool, but MediaReview annotations are currently not displayed. We are investigating approaches to incorporate appropriate MediaReview information in Fact Check Explorer search and how best to collaborate on MediaReview adoption within the community. Please contact fct-beta@google.com if you would like to discuss this topic.
Can I use the "regular" Google reverse image search?
You can perform a Google reverse image search with the "Try It" button at the bottom of the results page:
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Sharing feedback
Please use the Report Issue button on the bottom right of the page to provide any feedback (bugs, usability issues, suggestions, quality issues, positive feedback, etc.). Check the "We may email you for more information" box to allow us to follow up on your feedback.
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I didn't get useful results -- what are my other options?
Please file a bug report via the "Report issue" button (see Sharing feedback) if the results are not relevant, e.g. a missed or irrelevant fact check. You can also try a Google Reverse Image Search for the input image (see above).
Which fact checks are included?
Fact check articles appear in the Explorer if they are published in claim review schema and meet the guidelines for showing in Search or YouTube.
Note that this also applies to markup that was submitted via the Fact Check Markup Tool. However, articles with only MediaReview markup will not appear.
How can I restrict results?
Language
By default, fact check search results will be restricted by your browser language. You can also see results from other languages using the dropdown below the search bar.
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Publisher
You can also search for all results by a publisher by either clicking on the Publisher pill in a result, or by using a site restrict. For example, "site:politifact.com" or "site:politifact.com immigration". Restricting by publisher is not available for image search.
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How can I just see the latest fact checks?
The Fact Check Explorer home page shows a chronologically-ordered list of recent fact checks.
Fact Check Markup Tool
Goal
Prior to this tool, the only way to provide structured markup (i.e. schema.org/ClaimReview markup) for a page was to embed the markup in the HTML of the article. This process requires a certain level of technical expertise and can be error-prone.
The goal of this tool is to make the process of creating ClaimReview markup easier, by allowing markup to be submitted via a simple web form without the need to add anything to the article itself.
Markup created with this tool will be treated the same as markup that was embedded in the article directly.
The tool also allows publishers to add MediaReview markup.
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What is ClaimReview markup?
When publishers write a fact check article, they can add schema.org/ClaimReview markup to that article. This markup is structured data that contains information about the fact check -- for example, what was the claim being assessed, who made the claim, what was the verdict, and more.
Attaching ClaimReview to a fact check article will allow search engines to easily recognize that it is a fact check article and thus render it as such in search results and other surfaces.
Note that ClaimReview is an open ecosystem: any publisher can choose to add ClaimReview markup to a fact checking article.
What is MediaReview markup?
MediaReview is a new taxonomy being developed by the fact-checking community. For more information read: What is MediaReview or reach out to Joel Luther at Duke Reporters’ Lab and Baybars Örsek at the International Fact-Checking Network.
Where does the data go?
Any ClaimReview markup submitted via this tool is stored on datacommons.org and publicly available via a data feed. Search engines ingest this feed to ensure the corresponding articles are still treated as fact checks.
The MediaReview markup is still under development, so it will not be stored on datacommons.org or be publicly available via data feed. In order to help develop and verify the utility of the MediaReview markup, any MediaReview markup submitted via this tool will be made publicly available via a CSV file (download here). The CSV file will be updated approximately every 4 weeks, new additions and deletions will be reflected the next time the file is updated.
Will all my markup show up in Google products?
It depends. ClaimReview markup created with this tool is treated the same as markup embedded in web pages. That is, it's subject to Google's guidelines for fact check structured data. As noted there, you will also need to create several pages of markup before they may show in Google products.
In addition to that, there is a delay between markup being submitted and it showing up in Google products, including the Fact Check Explorer.
Who can create markup for a given site?
Users are authorized using Google Search Console. Any account that is listed as a restricted or full user of a site will be able to create markup for any articles of that site. The required steps are:
- Talk to your website administrator to find out if your site is already on Search Console. If not follow these steps.
- Ask your website administrator to add you as a user to the site, either as a restricted or full user.
Note that access is granted to sites exactly as they are specified in Search Console. For example, if Search Console has two entries for site.com and factcheck.site.com then you need to be added to both if you want to create markup for both sites.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I get access to the markup tool to markup my site's articles?
A user must have a Google account email address, and that same address must be added to their site's Google Search Console, in order for the user to edit or add markup for their site. To learn more, check out: Who can create markup for a given site? earlier on this page.
Can anyone else edit the markup for my site via the Fact Check Markup Tool?
No, the only users who can edit or add markup for a given site via the Fact Check Markup Tool are those who have had that same address added to their site's Google Search Console.
What happens to information submitted via the Fact Check Markup Tool?
All ClaimReview data submitted on the tool is stored on Data Commons and made available for use by platforms including Google and Facebook, academic researchers, and more. Given MediaReview is still under development, it is exempt from this.
What happens if a user submits ClaimReview via the Tool for articles that already have ClaimReview markup embedded on the page?
The markup submitted by the tool will supersede the older markup for purposes of surfacing on Google properties. Changes made in the tool will not affect markup that has been added directly on the page (but will also supersede in Google surfacing).
Does it matter which language I use for my markup?
General guidance is to use the markup language that matches the language of the article, presuming your intended audience uses Google (and Bing, etc.) products in the same language they'll be reading your article in.
I'm a news publisher and I've added my fact check markup to my articles, but they are not showing up in Google News. How can I get help?
Publishers must meet certain guidelines and policies to be included in the Google News fact-check widget. Learn more about our fact-check guidelines here.
What does the "warning Missing fields…" message in the Markup tool refer to?
Google makes all required ClaimReview markup fields available for editing in the Google Fact Check Markup Tool, along with a number of recommended fields. To ensure that your markup is available to Google properties you need to complete all fields specified as required by Google. You can refer to Structured data type definitions for more details on required and recommended fields.
Can I mark up multiple fact checks in a single article?
Yes, you can. Please review our developer documentation on multiple fact checks and please note, with multiple fact checks, Google Search may display a carousel for multiple fact checks, however this will be for mobile devices only as of now.
How should I select numerical rating in the Markup tool?
We often get questions about the numerical rating which corresponds to ratingvalue in schema.org. If your organization doesn't use numerical ratings, it is OK to leave this blank. This field is not shown to end users. The general guidance if you do choose to use numerical ratings is to ensure internal consistency.
What are the minimum required fields for Google Products?
You must include the required properties for your content to be eligible for display as a rich result. In the markup tool, these fields correspond to:
- Fact Check article: Link to the fact checking article on the publisher's site, e.g. your fact check article.
- Claim reviewed: A short summary of the claim being evaluated. Try to keep this less than 75 characters to minimize wrapping when displayed on a mobile device.
- Rating text: A human-readable short word or phrase. This value is displayed in the fact check in search results. Examples: "True" or "Mostly true". If using a longer sentence, be sure that the beginning of the sentence expresses the meaning, in case the sentence is truncated to fit the display. For example: "Mostly true in the specifics, although the overall claim is somewhat misleading." The guidance is that this language should match the language of the article.
Here’s how it shows up in Google Search, for example:
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See Structured data type definitions for more on required and recommended properties. Note: you can also choose to include the recommended properties to add more information about your content.
Are there Google policy guidelines for fact checkers? And are there any special guidelines for fact check aggregators?
Yes, for all policy related guidelines for fact checkers, please see Guidelines for policy details. Additionally, with respect to fact check aggregators, please ensure that you provide an open and publicly available list on your site of all fact-check websites you aggregate.