The “fake news” phenomenon has gone global, but the full extent of its reach remains largely a mystery. To shed light on the spread of disinformation in U.S. politics, we’re fielding, collecting and verifying instances of “fake news.” Use this database to check whether items you’ve read online are real or to get a sense of the breadth of political disinformation out there.
What is “fake news,” really?
Popularized by President Donald Trump, the term “fake news” has become ubiquitous in political discourse as an insult or to dismiss certain information. POLITICO, however, is focused on intentional disinformation – false political content created explicitly to deceive or misinform.
Collect, debunk and chronicle: By both crowd-sourcing information and scouring the internet ourselves, POLITICO will identify potential pieces of disinformation, which will be vetted by our staff. If the items fit our parameters for fakes, we will report on our findings.
How you can help: Send us any reports, websites or social media posts that you suspect may be disseminating disinformation. These reports flagged by users, along with those identified by POLITICO staffers, will be vetted and, if deemed appropriate, added and categorized into our public database of disinformation. https://www.politico.com/interactives/2018/is-this-true/about/
