The article I checked: http://www.snopes.com/pizzagate-conspiracy/
The fact checking post: https://voat.co/v/pizzagatejournalism/1838043
An image for sharing for awareness: https://i.imgsafe.org/b610fde124.jpg
Snopes wrote their effort to debunk Pizzagate on November 2016. My take on their piece was a pretty important project which has been on my mind for some time, while the Snopes article has been the top 1 search result for "pizzagate" for sevaral months, continuously giving a false impression to the public.
I only needed to go through the first 40 lines of the Snopes article with a professional touch, which was enough to debunk the whole article. Snopes actually even debunked themselves. LOL - My findings on Snopes errors in short:
- Narrowed scope, even that a more complete one was presented by their main source
- Several signals of unprofessionality in the fact checking
- Including controversials (first claiming "none was true", later representing parts most likely to be true)
- Bad use of sources (picking single online username not even checked for reliability)
- Bad use of sources (using biased media and a person in question, Alefantis)
- Bad use of sources (not linking directly to some sources in use)
- Lack of separating Snopes' own opinions from sourced information
- Inaccuracy
By sharing this project you'll help the public to realize how even the number one search result could be totally false information, rising awareness not only for the pizzagate but for some media criticism too. Please use the image above, or find your own ways to spread the awareness.
ps. Feel free to submit any of your findings to /v/pizzagatejournalism/ whenever you need help in fact checking something. I'm not doing the job for you, but I'm willing to help you on that, in purpose to fill the /v/pizzagate sub with checked, reliable submissions helpful for our investigations.
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PeesInPools ago
Nice work! For me, Snopes is no longer the top result on several engines, which is a good thing.
anonOpenPress ago
What's in top for you for "pizzagate", after clearing browsing history, cookies, and when not being signed in to any services used by search engines to figure out your personal interests?
PeesInPools ago
I'm actually working on a piece about the search results of all the major browsers. But at the moment, whether or not I'm logged in, everything cleared, or browsing in private mode, I get the same results. Voat and pizzagate.com are even near the top in DuckDuckGo. Though it's possible that engines could loosely track and tailor based on your IP and user-agent. I haven't heard any precedent for that, but it's worth experimenting to see (I mean, no precedent in terms of different results for identical IP; many are aware of Google's horrible China censorship, etc). I'll look into adding proxy chains, geolocation and UA spoofing, and other variables to my research.
Keep in mind I'm not saying the major engines and social networks aren't actively censoring and removing results and accounts, or implying that the results you do currently get are in our favor. Nor am I trying to discount your great work with Snopes, which is a significant player.