Tom Phillips

Editor (former)

Tom led our fact checking team and was responsible for ensuring that our fact checks were as accurate and fair as possible. Tom was previously the Editorial Director of Buzzfeed UK and his experience includes Buzzfeed, Trinity Mirror’s UsVsTh3m, MSN and Metro UK.

23 November 2020

The Daily Mail’s chart of Covid-19 death figures doesn’t use the real numbers

The chart of weekly deaths claimed to show that deaths were barely higher than previous years, but the figures are wrong.

8 September 2020

The word “robot” comes from Czech, not Greek like GPT-3 claims

GPT-3 is mistaken about the etymology of the word robot.

26 April 2020

Fake stories wrongly claim Elisa Granato, one of the UK's first Covid-19 vaccine trial participants, has died

False news reports wrongly claim that Dr Elisa Granato, one of the first participants in a UK Covid-19 vaccine trial, has died. She is not dead.

21 April 2020

There is no evidence supporting claims about a government-run network of fake NHS Twitter accounts

Viral posts on social media claim to have uncovered a network of fake Twitter accounts created to post pro-government messages. There is no evidence for this.

11 March 2020

There’s no evidence that the new coronavirus can survive on packages for 28 days

There’s no reason to believe that the new coronavirus can survive for long periods on packages from affected areas.

6 March 2020

What can you do to avoid the new coronavirus?

The official guidance recommends washing your hands with soap and water often for at least 20 seconds, and always when you arrive at home or work, and eat or handle food.

27 February 2020

There wasn’t more polar ice “than ever” in 2015

There was not more ice than ever in 2015—the polar ice caps have been shrinking for decades.

27 February 2020

How many birds are chickens?

Around 4-12% of birds are poultry, but if you looked at mass rather than the number of birds, poultry would account for 70%.

13 February 2020

These aren’t satellite images and they don’t show evidence of mass cremations in Wuhan

Images claiming to show high levels of sulphur dioxide above Wuhan are not based on real satellite data.

30 January 2020

Brexit: What will change after 31 January?

The main thing you need to know about what will change after Brexit day is that most things will stay the same—for eleven months, at least.

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About

Tom Phillips

Editor (former)

The Daily Mail’s chart of Covid-19 death figures doesn’t use the real numbers

The word “robot” comes from Czech, not Greek like GPT-3 claims

Fake stories wrongly claim Elisa Granato, one of the UK's first Covid-19 vaccine trial participants, has died

There is no evidence supporting claims about a government-run network of fake NHS Twitter accounts

There’s no evidence that the new coronavirus can survive on packages for 28 days

What can you do to avoid the new coronavirus?

There wasn’t more polar ice “than ever” in 2015

How many birds are chickens?

These aren’t satellite images and they don’t show evidence of mass cremations in Wuhan

Brexit: What will change after 31 January?

Full Fact fights bad information