How we spoke to 77 fact checkers and helped 21 of them start using Claim Review Schema

In 2019 we ran a project that helped more of our fact checking colleagues around the world adopt Claim Review Schema, and to train them to use it correctly.

Claim Review Schema is a tagging system that lets search engines, apps and social media platforms read our fact checks and show them in other places, like newsfeed or search results. 

Google recently revealed that thanks to Claim Review Schema “these fact checks appear more than 11 million times a day in Search results globally and in Google News in five countries (Brazil, France, India, U.K. and U.S.). That adds up to roughly 4 billion impressions a year.”

Our task in 2019 was to find out which fact checkers were not using Claim Review and why - and to figure out what we could do to help.

Implementing Claim Review Schema

You can add Claim Review to your fact check via a Google form or some fact checkers, like Full Fact, have Claim Review built directly into our website CMS. This reduces the amount of publishing admin that needs to take place. 

After some initial discussions with fact checkers around the world it became clear that although fact checkers saw the value of Claim Review, most didn't want to introduce a totally new process - filling the Google form - into their workflows . If they could they would focus on CMS integrations, but they didn’t have the developer capacity to build it into their CMSs. So given these constraints, we thought about ways we could help.

Out of 268 factchecking organisations that Duke Reporter’s Lab had collected at the time, we estimated that 169 of them were using Wordpress, or had done at some point. We decided to build a lightweight open source Wordpress plugin that would add Claim Review fields to the website of any fact checking organisation using WordPress, allowing them to add Claim Review within a matter of minutes. This wouldn’t work for everyone but it would for a good portion of fact checkers who weren’t using claim review schema at all.

It took us three months to find the right developer - the wonderful Rhys Wynne - and to plan, code, test, and document the plugin. It took another two weeks to get approval from Wordpress. After testing with GhanaFact and Duke Reporters Lab, we launched the plugin in October 2019. 

The plugin has been downloaded over 200 times - although that doesn’t mean it’s being used on over 200 sites. We know for sure that 21 fact checkers are now using it, and that another 18 have plans to use it soon. 

In total we spoke to 77 organisations about their needs for training around claim review schema and on automation in general. The plugin is available for anyone to use here.

What we learned 

Stuck in a web 

One organisation we worked with were close to losing their website entirely after being held hostage by their former developers. Rhys moved them onto a new server. We also helped several fact checkers upgrade their sites, as they didn’t have the resources to complete this themselves. Having a dedicated developer on hand for this project enabled us not only to install the plugin but also to help 10 fact checkers with different technical challenges that were holding back their ability to publish and reach audiences securely.

Fact checkers need access to funds and advice so that we can stay independent and do our jobs regardless of our structure, resources or where we are based.

Too many fact checkers worldwide don’t have funds for basic access to developers who can keep their sites up to date or secure. This puts them at unnecessary risk. 

Big numbers for big media houses

Initially, we didn’t have answers to the questions each organisation had. Can you quantify why we should use claim review? Does it increase our traffic? Why is it not being shown in Google Search? Why does it show it in the wrong language? How does Facebook use it? We raised each of these questions with Google and Facebook until we had a better understanding of the situation.

During the final months of this project, a blog from Google’s Alexios Mantzarlis helped by giving us some concrete numbers for the first time. In particular, it helped fact checkers within large media houses go to their senior colleagues with reasons to adopt Claim Review. 

It’s not surprising that fact checkers like to see evidence for claims before taking any kind of plunge. More transparency and openness from the internet platforms has always been encouraged and will always be welcome in our community.

Get the plugin or training on Claim Review

Although this project is officially coming to a close, our doors are still open to fact checkers who want to get trained on Claim Review, or who need support installing the plugin.

Our open source Claim Review plugin is available for installation via WordPress. You can see instructions for how to use it here, and training on installation here.

Here are some of the training materials we’ve created:

• Claim review one pager
• Claim review tips and best practices
• How to prepare your Google Search Console account
• How to use the Google MarkUp Tool

And there are more resources available at claimreviewproject.com. Please reach out to afc@fullfact.org for more information or assistance.