Accurate information is the foundation of a functioning democracy
A worldwide network of scientists sorting fact from fiction.
Our goal is to empower readers to discern trustworthy news.
Insights
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Offshore wind turbines aren’t louder than high winds or passing ships, no evidence they harm whales
Offshore wind developers have faced fierce backlash from politicians and anti-wind campaigners, funded by or linked to the fossil fuel industry. Offshore wind turbines aren’t quiet, but it’s misleading to label their noise as a danger to whales while ignoring other noise sources.
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Wind turbines and solar panels are lower-emissions than fossil fuels overall
Scientific evidence leaves no doubt that solar panels and wind turbines are far less emissions-intensive than their fossil fuel counterparts. Even the highest-end estimates for emissions from solar panels and wind turbines are lower than the lowest-end estimates of emissions from fossil fuel power plants like coal and gas.
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Hailstorm in Saudi Arabian desert mistaken for snow, sparking misleading climate claims online
In early November, several photos were shared via social media and news outlets showing what was allegedly the ‘first-ever snowfall…
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Recent Reviews
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InaccurateTire fires in Kuwait have a much smaller climate influence than methane emissions from cows, contrary to claims
Claim:
Cow farts [methane emissions from cattle] are blamed for climate change, but there are bigger issues like people burning millions of tires in the deserts of Kuwait.
Source: Instagram, Social media users, 2024-11-23 -
CorrectFacebook meme correctly states that vaccines led to eradication of polio and smallpox, not “natural herd immunity”
Claim:
"I don't know who needs to hear this but Polio and smallpox never reached natural herd immunity, they were eradicated by vaccines"
Source: Facebook, Facebook users, 2024-12-10 -
InaccurateNo, marine emissions study didn’t find that climate change is ‘greatly overestimated’, contrary to recent claims
Claim:
New study shows that climate change is greatly overestimated because oceans are cooling Earth far more than we thought
Source: Studyfinds.org, Jocelyn Solis-Moreira, 2024-12-10 -
InaccurateContrary to viral misinformation, cow feed additive Bovaer shows no safety concerns for consumers
Claim:
Cow feed additive Bovaer is unsafe, makes milk unfit for human consumption
Source: X/Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Social media users, 2024-12-03 -
UnsupportedNo, study didn’t find that seed oils fuel “explosion of colon cancers in young people”
Claim:
“Doctors warn cooking oil used by millions may be fueling explosion of colon cancers in young people”
Source: Daily Mail, Emily Joshu, 2024-12-10 -
InaccurateNo proof for the existence of a mystery element named ether
Claim:
Ether was removed from history books and the periodic table due to a conspiracy by powerful interests.
Source: Facebook, Social media users, 2024-12-09
Analyses & Investigations
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Sanctioned but Thriving: How Online Platforms Fail To Address the Widespread Presence of Entities Under EU Sanctions
given the ease with which such illegal content was discovered, Meta, Google, X/Twitter, TikTok and Telegram’s compliance teams should investigate why they seem not to have taken sufficient action to limit access.
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An unfair (algorithmic?) advantage: a popularity premium for low-credibility accounts on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram before the 2024 European Parliament elections
Analysis of YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram data in the run-up to the 2024 European Parliament elections campaign highlight a substantial “popularity premium” benefitting low-credibility accounts when compared to a control group of high-credibility accounts
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Despite Community Notes, most content reviewed by fact-checkers in Europe goes unaddressed on X/Twitter
While X is presenting the crowd-sourced Community Notes system as a substitute for professional fact-checking, our results show that in a European context, Community Notes (and more broadly, X’s content moderation systems) fail to identify the posts flagged by professional fact-checkers, leaving misleading and oftentimes highly-viral content unaddressed.
News & events
press
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CNN
Fact-checkers, targeted by MAGA loyalists, blast Zuckerberg’s assertion their work was ‘biased’
Science Feedback, another one of Meta’s fact-checking partners, said “the public faces an ever-growing risk of being misled by powerful actors prioritizing their own interests over the well-being of their audience or the public good.”
Science Feedback recently published an analysis finding that X’s community notes system failed to address “most of the misinformation identified by fact-checkers on the platform” around last year’s European Parliament elections.
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TV5 Monde
Climate: denial, fake news? climate disinformation is gaining ground
(translated from French) Climate denying influencers and certain political leaders are spreading false information. How can we combat this type of misinformation? We discussed with Marie-Eve Carignan, professor at the University of Sherbrook and Emmanuel Vincent, founder and executive director of Science Feedback.
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Wired Italia
On Facebook, Russian media don’t care about European sanctions
(translated from Italian) There are 52 pages and accounts of Russian media and individuals on Facebook, with a total of more than 3.9 million followers, which, despite having been sanctioned by the European Union after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, are still currently accessible to European citizens. This is according to a report published on July 31 by the Alliance for Europe and Science Feedback, two organizations that are part of the Counter Disinformation Network and specialize in analyzing online disinformation campaigns.
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Rolling Stone
How Elon Musk and X Became the Biggest Purveyors of Online Misinformation
Science Feedback released a study in March 2023 which found that 490 misinformation “superspreader” accounts posting viral false claims had enjoyed a 44 percent increase in engagement under the Musk regime.