Are Fact-Checking Tools Helpful? An Exploration of the Usability of Google Fact Check
<|reference_start|>Are Fact-Checking Tools Helpful? An Exploration of the Usability of Google Fact Check: Fact-checking-specific search engines such as Google Fact Check are a promising way to combat misinformation on social media, especially during significant events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the U.S. presidential elections, but the usability of such an approach has not been thoroughly studied. We evaluated the performance of Google Fact Check by analyzing the retrieved fact-checking results regarding 1,000 COVID-19-related false claims and found it able to retrieve the fact-checking results for 15.8% of the input claims, and the results are relatively reliable. We also found that the false claims receiving different fact-checking verdicts (i.e., "False," "Partly False," "True," and "Unratable") tend to reflect diverse emotional tones, and fact-checking sources tend to check the claims in different lengths and using dictionary words to various extents. Claim variations addressing the same issue yet described differently are likely to retrieve distinct fact-checking results. We suggested that the quantities of the retrieved fact-checking results could be optimized and that slightly adjusting input wording may be the best practice for users to retrieve more useful information. This study aims to contribute to the understanding of state-of-the-art fact-checking tools and information integrity.<|reference_end|>
@article{yang2024are,
    title={Are Fact-Checking Tools Helpful? An Exploration of the Usability of
  Google Fact Check},
    author={Qiangeng Yang, Tess Christensen, Shlok Gilda, Juliana Fernandes,
  Daniela Oliveira, Ronald Wilson, Damon Woodard},
    journal={arXiv preprint arXiv:2402.13244},
    year={2024},
    archivePrefix={arXiv},
    eprint={2402.13244},
    primaryClass={cs.SI}
}