Methodology
How Truth Verdicts Work
Truth checks spoken and written claims and answers with one of five verdicts. This page explains what each verdict means, the rule that decides between them, where our evidence comes from, and how to get a mistake corrected. Every published fact check on this site links back here, so you always know how a verdict was reached.
The five verdicts
The claim is supported by evidence from sources we can name and you can open yourself. The core of what was said checks out.
The claim is contradicted by evidence. We only use FALSE when something actively disproves the claim, not when we simply could not confirm it.
Part of the claim holds up and part does not. A real number framed the wrong way, or a true event with an invented detail. The check spells out which part is which.
The evidence does not settle it either way. There is no solid confirmation and no solid disproof. An UNCLEAR verdict is a finding, not a shrug: it tells you the claim is circulating ahead of the evidence.
The statement is a judgement, prediction, or preference rather than a checkable fact. Opinions cannot be verified, only weighed, so they get no accuracy rating.
The burden-of-proof rule
One rule decides the hard cases: a claim is never marked FALSE just because we could not confirm it. FALSE requires disproof, meaning evidence that the claim is wrong, not merely an absence of evidence that it is right. When we can find neither confirmation nor disproof, the verdict is UNCLEAR. This keeps the FALSE label trustworthy: when you see it, something specific and checkable contradicts the claim.
The same discipline applies in the other direction. TRUE is not "sounds plausible" or "widely repeated". It means named sources support the claim. Claims that are plausible but unconfirmed are UNCLEAR.
Sources policy
Every fact check we publish cites at least two named sources with working links, so you can verify the verdict yourself instead of taking our word for it. We prefer primary sources: official statistics, court records, original studies, direct statements from the people involved, and original reporting. Secondary write-ups are used to add context, not to carry a verdict on their own. A check that cannot meet the two-source bar does not get published.
The verdicts come from an AI verification workflow with human review before publishing. AI is fast at surfacing evidence and a likely verdict, but it can be wrong, which is why every page shows its sources and why the corrections process below exists.
Corrections
If you believe a verdict or any detail in a published check is wrong, email [email protected] with a link to the page and the evidence we missed. We review every report. When a report holds up, we correct the page, update the verdict if needed, and refresh the date shown on it so the change is visible. Reports that point to real errors make the whole archive better, so please send them.
See verdicts live, while you watch
Truth is a free Chrome extension that checks claims in the videos and pages you are already watching and shows these verdicts on the spot.