About Us

We rake for FACTS

FactRakers is a Philippines-based fact-checking initiative of journalism majors at the University of the Philippines-Diliman working under the supervision of Associate Professor Yvonne T. Chua of the University of the Philippines’ Journalism Department. Associate Professor Ma. Diosa Labiste, also of the Journalism Department, serves as editorial consultant.

The name of the initiative, coined from the words “fact” and “raker,” is inspired by the term “muckrakers,” first used in the early 1900s by American president Theodore Roosevelt to express his annoyance at progressive, reform-minded journalists at the time.

Fact checking started as an activity in Chua's Journalism Ethics class (J110) in 2011.

In the 2016 general elections, Her students fact-checked statements made by candidates for national positions. The students' fact checks, which she and journalism senior lecturer Jake Soriano vetted, formed the core of “Is that so?”, which the media nonprofit VERA Files adopted and later spun off as VERA Files Fact Check. Chua cofounded VERA Files.

Following the successful fact-checking efforts of J110 students in the elections, fact-checking became one of the full-semester seminar courses (Journ 196) offered to journalism majors starting Academic Year 2017-18.

Students enrolled in the UPD’s fact-checking seminar course again played a vital role in Tsek.ph, a groundbreaking collaborative fact-checking initiative that brought together three universities and 11 media organizations to fact-check the 2019 midterm elections. Their output accounted for the majority of fact checks produced by the initiative. Chua and Labiste, who have done research on disinformation and mal-information in the Philippines, coordinated the Tsek.ph partnership.

FactRakers is one of the 34 partners of Tsek.ph, which was revived for the 2022 general election.

FactRakers is committed to continue this tradition by adhering to the standards and principles of fact checking set by the International Fact-Checking Network at Poynter. It hopes to expand its pool of fact checkers beyond the university’s boundaries and instill a fact-checking mindset in more Filipinos. The initiative won first prize in the special projects category of the 2020 Philippine Journalism Research Conference.

Starting Nov. 1, 2024, FactRakers adopted Meta's rating options for its third-party fact checkers. These are:

FALSE: Content that has no basis in fact. This includes:

Fake quotes
Claims that are impossible, or that could not be considered an interpretation of something that actually happened or was said
Conspiracy theories that explain events as the secret work of individuals or groups, which may cite true or unverifiable information but present an implausible conclusion
Fabricated content from websites misrepresenting themselves as real news outlets
Image, audio or video content that is authentic but offered as proof of a separate event (i.e., false context)

ALTERED: Image, audio, or video content that has been edited or synthesized beyond adjustments for clarity or quality, in ways that could mislead people about something that has no basis in fact. This includes media that is digitally created or edited through the use of artificial intelligence (AI). It also includes splicing media together, but not media excerpts (see ‘missing context’ rating), presenting media in a false context (see ‘false’ rating), or media where the digital creation or editing method is not itself misleading but the media includes a false claim (see ‘false’ rating). This does not include media with transparency using one of Meta’s AI labels or Meta’s AI watermarks or non-Meta transparency methods that clearly convey the use of AI, though a post may be eligible for another rating if it includes a claim separate from the use of digitally created or edited media. This definition includes:

Manipulated or transformed audio, video, or photos
Synthetic image, audio, or video, including media created using artificial intelligence:
Media edited to omit or reorder the words someone said to reverse the meaning of the statement

PARTLY FALSE: Content has some factual inaccuracies. This includes:

Inaccuracies or miscalculations regarding numbers, dates, times, but that could be considered an interpretation of something that actually happened or was said
A mix of true and false key claims, where the false claims do not predominate
Content presented as an opinion but based on underlying false information

MISSING CONTEXT: Content that implies a false claim without directly stating it. This includes:

Clips or excerpts from authentic media that hasn't been altered (see "altered rating" definition) or presented in a false context (see "false rating" definition), but distorts the meaning of the original content to imply a false claim. This does not include clips of authentic politician speech (e.g., text quotes, video clip) (see Politician definition)
Reporting on a false claim made by a third-party without questioning the veracity of the claim.
Use of data or statistics that implies a false conclusion

SATIRE: Content that uses irony, exaggeration, or absurdity for criticism or awareness, particularly in the context of political, religious, or social issues, but that a reasonable user would not immediately understand to be satirical. This may be from sites not clearly labeled as or widely known as satire, or presented without clear labeling.

TRUE: Content that contains no inaccurate or misleading information.

FactRakers previously used the ratings of Tsek.ph. The Tsek.ph ratiings are:

ACCURATE: The statement/claim is demonstrably factual and true.

FALSE: The statement/claim is demonstrably contrary to available facts.

MISLEADING: The statement/claim gives a vague or different impression.

NEEDS CONTEXT: The statement/claim needs more facts or clarification because it may be taken out of context.

NO BASIS: The statement/claim cannot be verified or fact-checked.

The fact checks by Factrakers are covered by the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) license.

Meet the FactRakers:

FactRakers

Sifting facts from falsehoods

About Us

We rake for FACTS