As the holidays approach, with their inevitable dinner-table debates among friends and extended family, FlackCheck.org has released a short video that can help people sort fact from fiction when considering email and viral social-media claims.
In “Spotting Bogus Claims,” FlackCheck.org, the political literacy site, runs down seven key characteristics of bogus email claims.
The three-minute video is a companion to a report from FactCheck.org called “That Chain E-mail Your Friend Sent to You Is (Likely) Bogus. Seriously.” That special report published in 2008 encouraged readers to be highly skeptical of any chain emails that landed in their inboxes. “Assume all such messages are wrong, and you’ll be right most of the time,” FactCheck said then.
FlackCheck.org and FactCheck.org are projects of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania.
