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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Training and using ChatGPT uses a lot of energy, but exact numbers are tricky to pin down without data from OpenAI
As the capabilities and adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) continue to grow, so are its energy impacts. Training and ongoing use of AI models requires significant energy due to their use of data centers – one of the most energy-intensive building types.
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Cattle have numerous impacts on Earth’s climate and natural environments, despite misconceptions
Summary Studies have shown that cattle farming operations – even ones that are perceived to be ‘better’ like pastured operations…
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Will solar panels overrun farmland? The two are more likely to coexist
Even if solar capacity continues to grow at unprecedented rates in the next several years, data suggests that the land used for solar panels will account for a small portion of the land used for agriculture.
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Recent Reviews
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MisleadingSide effects from vaccination aren’t more dangerous than measles outbreaks
Claim:
Media exaggerates the harm of some measles cases while it ignores millions of “vaccine injury reports”
Source: Facebook, Instagram, Social media users, 2025-02-20 -
IncorrectVaccine skeptics misconstrue studies to falsely claim that measles vaccine causes measles outbreaks
Claim:
Measles vaccine caused Texas outbreak; measles vaccine is responsible for measles outbreaks
Source: Children's Health Defense, The People’s Voice, Baxter Dmitry, Marcella Piper-Terry, 2025-02-17 -
InaccurateFlight paths are not evidence for a flat Earth
Claim:
Flights from New Zealand to Argentina connect through the U.S., which only makes sense if the Earth is flat.
Source: Facebook, Social media users, 2025-02-14 -
UnsupportedNo evidence that EVs cause infertility, and their magnetic fields are similar to those from household electronics
Claim:
Electric vehicles cause infertility. Being in an electric car will lower your testosterone.
Source: YouTube, Justin Frandson, Garry Lineham, 2025-02-07 -
MisleadingNo evidence that measles prevents cancer or heart disease, can lead to long-term health problems instead
Claim:
Measles prevents cancer, provides long-term health benefits
Source: Instagram, Social media users, 2025-02-15 -
UnsupportedAltered video of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promotes unproven use of apple cider vinegar as diabetes cure
Claim:
Apple cider vinegar is a cure for diabetes; it’s an effective substitute to metformin therapy and dietary changes
Source: Facebook, Social media users, 2025-02-09
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
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Science Feedback, QuotaClimat, and Data for Good Launch Climate Safeguard, an AI Tool to Detect Climate Misinformation on TV and Radio
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Science Feedback Participates in New Project to Measure the Amount of Misleading Information on Large Online Platforms
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Science Feedback Launches French Website to Empower the Public to Verify the Credibility of Scientific Information
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.