Google is expanding its “Fact Check” tag to search results and news articles worldwide. The tag indicates that a piece of content includes information that has been fact-checked by news publishers and fact-checking organizations.
Fact Check was first introduced in October and was initially available only in Google News for select countries. Now, for the first time, it is available in the main set of search results pages.
Qualifying content will be represented by a snippet that includes information on the claim, who made the claim, and to what degree the claim is true.
Here is an example:
Google notes this won’t be available for every search, and there may be instances where different publishers checked the same claim and came to different conclusions.
“These fact checks are not Google’s and are presented so people can make more informed judgments. Even though differing conclusions may be presented, we think it’s still helpful for people to understand the degree of consensus around a particular claim and have clear information on which sources agree.”
Publishers must meet a strict set of criteria to be included in this feature. First, they must use the Schema.org ClaimReview markup on pages where public statements have been fact-checked.
Second, publishers will only be included if they are algorithmically determined to be an authoritative source of information.
Lastly, Google says, “Content must adhere to the general policies that apply to all structured data markup, the Google News Publisher criteria for fact checks, and the standards for accountability and transparency, readability or proper site representation as articulated in our Google News General Guidelines.”
Failing to meet these standards may result in Google ignoring a site’s ClaimReview markup.
