Misinformation rarely arrives looking suspicious. Most of it borrows the visual language of legitimate journalism — a logo, a byline, a confident headline. The job of verification is not to declare a story "true" or "false" at first glance, but to walk through a repeatable sequence of checks. FAXTR's position is the same as the International Fact-Checking Network's: collect the evidence, link the sources, let the reader decide.
The seven steps below are ordered roughly by speed. Step 1 takes seconds; step 7 may take minutes. You don't always need all seven — but if a claim makes you feel something strongly (anger, vindication, fear), run all seven before you hit share.
The 7-Step Checklist
Check the source domain
Start by asking: what publication is this? Look up the domain on Media Bias/Fact Check or Wikipedia. Be alert to look-alike URLs (abcnews.com.co vs abcnews.go.com) and freshly-registered domains — both classic disinformation patterns documented by the Stanford Internet Observatory. If the masthead lists no real editors and no contact address, treat the article as a single anonymous source, not as journalism.
Cross-reference with established fact-checkers
Before you accept or share a claim, search it on at least two independent fact-checkers: AFP Fact Check, Reuters Fact Check, Snopes, PolitiFact, Full Fact, or regional IFCN-signatory orgs. FAXTR aggregates 100+ of these into one search box, so a single query surfaces whether the claim already has a verdict. If two independent checkers reach the same conclusion, your confidence should jump sharply.
Reverse image search every photo
Photos are the most reused element in misinformation. Drag any image into Google Lens, TinEye, or Yandex Images. Older versions of the same picture mean recycled content — a common tactic in war coverage and disaster hoaxes. Bellingcat's open-source investigation guides treat reverse image search as a baseline check before any image is published.
Verify the publication date
Old true stories are routinely re-shared as if they were new. Check the article's publish date, the URL slug date, and — for social posts — the original upload time. A 2019 fire photo recirculating as a 2026 event isn't 'fake', but it is misleading. Time-stamping is the single fastest sanity check in your toolkit.
Identify the author and their track record
Search the byline. Does the author have other published work, a LinkedIn presence, a record of corrections? Anonymous bylines aren't automatically wrong, but they shift the burden of proof. For investigative claims, established reporters with named editors are a stronger signal than viral threads with no attribution.
Trace the primary source
Most viral claims are quoted from a quoted summary of a quoted study. Click through until you reach the actual document: the court filing, the peer-reviewed paper, the government release, the company SEC disclosure. If no primary source exists, the claim is hearsay regardless of how many outlets repeat it.
Run an AI-generation check
For text, images, video, and audio: assume AI manipulation is possible. Paste suspicious text into an AI detector (see our ChatGPT detector guide), run images through AI-image detection tools, and check video for deepfake artifacts. FAXTR's AI Fakes feed tracks confirmed AI-generated misinformation circulating today.
Why these seven and not more
Longer checklists (15-step, 25-step) exist, but research from the News Literacy Project and Stanford History Education Group consistently shows that readers abandon checklists past about 7 items. The seven above cover the four failure modes that account for most viral misinformation: fabricated outlets, recycled photos, out-of-date stories, and synthetic media. Run them in order, stop as soon as the claim fails any one of them, and you will catch the overwhelming majority of false news in circulation today.
When in doubt, slow down
The most useful skill in news verification isn't any single tool — it's the habit of waiting. A claim that's true today will still be true tomorrow. A claim that's false rarely survives 24 hours of independent reporting. If you can't verify it now, hold the share button.
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