Fact Checking Tools for News, Media, and AI Content

This page is a guide to trustworthy resources for learning about, spotting, and fighting misinformation. There currently is no one website to determine whether published information is false, misleading, or AI generated. The resources listed below can help verify information found in the news, on social media, published articles, and more.

Fact-Checking Websites and Organizations
Reverse Image Search and AI Resources
News/Media Literacy Organizations
Media Bias Ratings
Courses and Curricula

Fact-checking Websites*

Factcheck.org  A non-profit organization that is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania

Politifact.com Started at the Tampa Bay Times, Politifact is now administered by the non-profit Poynter Institute

Snopes.com Beginning in the 1990's as a debunker of urban legends and hoaxes, Snopes has now expanded its reach to fact-checking all types of misinformation 

Associated Press Fact Check The fact-checking page of the Associated Press, a longstanding non-profit news agency

Reuters Fact Check The fact-checking page of the international news agency

Washington Post Fact Checker  A fact-checking column maintained by journalist Glenn Kessler

* Because not all websites and publications claiming to be fact-checkers really are committed to facts, the links above are limited to organizations that are signatories of the International Fact-Checking Network’s Code of Principles. The International Fact-Checking Network is an international association of fact-checking organizations, administered by the Poynter Institute. To search for other signatories around the world, click here.

Reverse Image Search and AI Resources

TinEye A search engine for images

Tools that Fight Disinformation Online: Rand Corporation An extensive list of websites, organizations, and applications for identifying mis/disinformation

How to Fact-Check AI Microsoft, one of the companies pioneering AI development and production, published this article on how to reliably fact check AI generated information.

AI Incident Database The AI Incident Database is dedicated to indexing the collective history of harms or near harms realized in the real world by the deployment of artificial intelligence systems. Review the AI News Digest or submit an incident report for review by professionals.

Fact Checkers’ Guide to Manipulated Video This interactive content from the Washington Post teaches how to identify AI generated or AI manipulated videos.

Britannica Education Spotting AI Images Quiz Learn how to quickly identify AI generated images using real life examples.

New York Times Test: Which Faces Were Made by AI Tools powered by artificial intelligence can create lifelike images of people who do not exist. See if you can identify which of these images are real people and which are A.I.-generated. Sign in to NYTimes using your library card.

News/Media Literacy Organizations

Spotting misinformation is one aspect of a broader set of skills known as media literacy or news literacy. Briefly, media literacy is the ability to understand and evaluate information in mass media (TV, websites, social media, radio, newspapers, etc.) whereas news literacy focuses on news media in particular. These terms are often used interchangeably, and the sites below are excellent resources for becoming more news/media literate.

News Literacy Project  A non-profit organization devoted to increasing news literacy among students and the public

MediaWise A non-profit project of the Poynter Institute, focused on teaching news literacy and fact-checking

National Association for Media Literacy Education A non-profit media literacy association which administers Media Literacy Week every October

PEN America. Disinformation. A media literacy program education project by PEN America, a non-profit organization focused on freedom of expression, particularly for writers and journalists

Media Bias Ratings

Allsides Assesses the political leanings of news sources, and curates a stream of articles on current events from sources on the left, right, and center. 

Ad Fontes Media A company that assesses the quality and political leanings of news sources. Best known for their Media Bias Chart 

Media Bias / Fact Check Ranks news sources along a left to right spectrum, and also discusses pseudoscience and conspiracy sources

Courses and Curricula

Crash Course Media Literacy Series A series of videos from the Crash Course educational channel on YouTube

MediaWise Education Resources  Online courses and curriculum materials developed by MediaWise

Civic Online Reasoning Online courses and materials developed by the Stanford History Education Group

Fighting Misinformation: The Great Courses (Available through DPL via Kanopy)