An educational tool, not a verdict

Check whether a story
uses manipulation tricks.

Paste the text of a news article, post or ad below. The fact-checker does NOT tell you whether the information is true or false — that's the job of a journalist or fact-checker. It shows you what signs of manipulation appear in the text, so you can decide for yourself how much to trust it.

Read this first: this tool does NOT establish truth. It only shows whether the text uses known manipulation techniques. A manipulative text is not necessarily false — and a story without manipulation signals is not necessarily true.

The decision is yours.
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Or try an example:

How the checker works

The fact-checker doesn't use AI. It uses a transparent set of rules, each one verifiable and each based on the 6 manipulation techniques studied by researchers at Cambridge and Google Jigsaw. That means you can see exactly why a signal fired — and you can disagree. That's the point.

01

Emotional language

We look for words that trigger anger or fear, excessive exclamation marks, and words written entirely in capitals.

02

Vague authority

We look for phrases like “studies show” or “experts say”, without verifiable names or links.

03

Urgency

We look for expressions that pressure you to act immediately: “share before they delete”, “urgent”, “last chance”.

04

Us vs. them

We look for tribal language: “they want”, “they hide”, “wake up”, artificial oppositions.

05

Missing context

We check whether the text has dates, places and sources — the anchors that allow verification.

06

Viral amplification

We look for signs of content engineered to spread: repeated punctuation, stretched words, excess hashtags.

MEET THE CREATOR

Nicholas Carstoiu

The Fake News Factory and this fact-check tool were created by Nicholas Carstoiu — Romanian youth leader, member of the UNICEF Romania Children's Board, member of the Children's Advisory Council of the Bucharest City Hall, and Ambassador for Romania of United Citizens of Europe. The project is a double first prize winner in 2026, recognised by Freedom House Romania and Grant My Passion / McDonald's Romania.