Let’s talk (again) about why fact-checking works

At a moment of discouragement, we need to stop with the defeatism

At a recent Northwestern University conference on disinformation, several speakers argued that fact-checking “doesn’t work” — that it can’t scale online, and that platforms don’t care. These comments are spreading even among people who care about truth and accuracy.

That’s frankly alarming. Fact-checking has enough battles to fight without taking friendly fire.

So let me say this plainly: We need to talk, because fact-checking works.

First, let’s talk about what “doesn’t work” actually means. Fact-checking isn’t designed to eliminate all false information — that’s an impossible standard. If your expectation is that fact-checking will punish liars or change election outcomes, you’re setting it up to fail no matter how effective it actually is.