A verdict is only as good as the sources behind it. This is how FAKTS gathers sources, how it weights them, and why it does not accept sources chosen by an interested party.
Where sources come from
For every claim, the web-grounded panelists in the consilium pull sources from the open web at the moment of the check. FAKTS does not maintain a walled garden of approved publications, and it does not exclude publications for their political direction. The system prefers primary and independently verifiable sources when they exist.
How sources are weighted
Not every source carries the same weight. Panelists are calibrated to prefer, in this rough order:
- Peer-reviewed research and academic journals. For scientific, medical, and technical claims.
- Government and intergovernmental bodies. Statistical agencies, health authorities, courts, and multilateral organizations, for official facts and legal matters.
- Established news organizations. With a bias toward outlets that publish corrections openly and document their sourcing.
- Reference works and dedicated fact-checkers. Encyclopedias, standards bodies, and other fact-checking organizations, treated as one input among many.
- Specialist and trade publications. For domain-specific claims where general news is not close enough to the material.
- General web pages. Included when they add primary evidence, quoted with care, and never given the last word on their own.
Every verdict links its sources
Every verdict on every result page links the sources that support it. You can open them, read them, and disagree with the panel. The panel is a tool for reading faster; the sources are the reason to trust the reading.
What FAKTS does not accept
- FAKTS does not accept payment to include, exclude, or weight any specific source.
- FAKTS does not let the subject of a check choose the sources used to assess it.
- FAKTS does not accept "as told to" sourcing where the primary evidence is only the interested party's own claim.
When sources disagree
If credible sources genuinely disagree, the verdict tends toward emerging or misleading, and the disagreement is shown in the result card. FAKTS does not pretend that all facts are settled; it reports the state of the sources at check time.
When sources change
Sources are updated, retracted, and corrected all the time. A re-check pulls fresh sources and can move a verdict up or down. Verdicts carry a timestamp so you can see when the check ran.