How we rate claims

Every rating applies to one exact claim.

Each fact-check rates the claim exactly as it circulates, not the article's headline. The rating always appears beside that claim, with a one-sentence reason, our confidence, and the date we last reviewed it.

Ratings

True: The claim is accurate as stated.
Mostly true: The claim's main point is accurate, but it omits context or slightly overstates.
Mixed: Significant parts of the claim are accurate and significant parts are not.
Misleading: The claim uses accurate facts but leaves a wrong impression, or is accurate only under a reading most people would not take.
False: The evidence contradicts the claim.
No evidence: No credible evidence supports the claim, after a real search for it. The claim may not be directly disproven, but nothing backs it.
Unproven: The question is genuinely open: credible evidence points in more than one direction, or the research needed to settle it has not been done.

No evidence and Unproven are different. No evidence means nothing credible supports the claim. Unproven means the question is genuinely open. Mixed is about a claim that has true and false parts; Unproven is about evidence that is not settled.

Confidence and review date

Confidence (high, moderate, or low) says how strongly the evidence supports the rating. Last reviewed is the date we last checked the fact-check against the evidence.

Quoting a rating, and when ratings change

Every fact-check ends its five-second answer with a sentence you can quote word for word, linked to the exact version it describes. If new evidence changes a rating, we publish a new version and record the change and the reason in the article's update history. Earlier versions stay available at their own links, so a quoted rating can always be checked against what we published.