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As we are still being repeatedly bombarded with spam containing conspiracy theories and other misinformation related to the COVID-19 virus from Wuhan, climate change, and various other topics, it is about time we took another look at some more tools that are at our disposal for disproving and countering such stupidity. Hopefully this could nip some ignorance in the bud before it has a lasting effect on society and becomes ingrained in society’s collective conscious. Fortunately, there is an increasing number of useful websites, and even handbooks, that we can turn to in order to safely navigate around the icebergs of inanity in the ocean of knowledge available online. To kick things off, there is Google’s Fact Check Explorer, which is a search results aggregator of claims that have already been checked by other websites, such as news services, journals or dedicated fact-checking sites. This is particularly handy because you can type in a specific conspiracy theory or statement that you want to check the veracity of, such as “climate change is not happening”, or “garlic cures COVID-19”, and the results displayed will show short excerpts of related claims that have been checked. In most cases there is also a rating of the validity of the statement according to the websites that checked the facts, but you can click on the links to go to the relevant sites for a more detailed explanation. Currently, there are the options of searching in English or Chinese, so it is the perfect thing to send to people who insist on blindly forwarding spam and fake news. https://toolbox.google.com/factcheck/explorer |
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