In real fake news, the Independent, which published fake news will launch a team to debunk fake news. Who better, right?
The Independent is launching its own team dedicated specifically to debunking fake news in its various guises.
Like The Independent.
The goal: to expose the worst abuses of the truth, from political spin to outright lies, across a range of topics and focusing heavily on politics.
The team will begin publishing under the In Fact label in April, and articles will come in the form of standard news pieces, quizzes, fact boxes and long-read explainers. All journalists will be encouraged to feed into the initiative and use tools like Chartbeat and Brandwatch to monitor for stories they select that need further information or need to be debunked entirely.
And since Facebook began promoting fake news checkers, there's a profit motive in it. But here's one problem...
The Independent published the fake news story that Trump had handed Merkel a NATO bill. Despite being debunked by both governments, the story is still on the site. So you can absolutely trust the Independent to debunk fake news.
Debunker, debunk thyself.