How to fact check fake news on Google

Fake news and misinformation campaigns are as old as time, but they have never been as weaponized as they are now. This is in large part due to the improved connectivity and widespread use of social media. As such, differentiating between fake news and real news has become a nightmare.

The fake news problem is amplified further when it reaches the first page of Google search. While Google has been consciously fighting fake news by tagging articles that contain false information, the problem is so bad these articles often land on the first page of Google search.

So, how can you fight this? How can you fact check fake news? Most of us might not always have the time or energy to fact check everything we read on the internet, especially when it involves reading multiple articles and identifying false information manually.

As such, having a tool to check fake news becomes a necessity.

The best part about fact checking fake news on Google is that the claims and results are easily visible. All you have to do is simply enter the search term and Google will tell you whether it is fake news or not.

This saves a lot of time and effort that you would have spent by manually checking and verifying from various articles. So, without wasting any more time, let’s find out how to fight fake news using Google.

How to fact check fake news on Google

There are multiple ways in which you can quickly check fake news on Google.

The easiest method is by simply typing “fact check search term” in the Google Search box.

The search results then show all the relevant fact check articles on your topic.

To make it quick and easy to identify if a news item is fake or not, the search results contain the following:

• The claim made
  
• The source of the claim
  
• The fact check result
  
• The name of the fact checker

Using the Google Fact Check Tool

Apart from showing fact check results in Google Search, Google has launched a dedicated tool to identify fake news.

Launch the Google Fact Check Tool here.

Now, enter your search term. In this example, we search for “Delhi violence”.

The tool then shows results with the fake claims and result of the fact check.

If you don’t know what to search for, you can also click on the “Recent fact checks” link to view the latest stories that were fact checked.

Google sources fact checks from reputed sources like Alt News, Boom and more.

Reverse image search

Another way to fact check fake news is by doing a reverse image search on Google or Bing.

To do this, open the article and locate the image you want to check.

Now, right click on the image and click on “Search Google for image”.

It is worth noting that this method might not always prove to be as useful as the first two. If the image is being used for an unrelated news story, that story will also show up in the results.

In our tests, we were able to find the fact checking story, but other news stories showed up before the fact check story.

See also:

Google, Facebook, Twitter and other social media companies to join hands to curb fake news in India

Facebook is the most popular social network for governments spreading fake news and propaganda