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Methodology

What Veratify can — and can’t — check.

Veratify checks factual claims. A checkable claim is one a primary source could confirm or refute. When a claim is checkable, we commit to a verdict and show you the evidence.

See the test What we decline
Checkable sources Government datasets. Official records. Court dockets. Scientific measurements. Dated news reports. Public evidence a reader can inspect.
YesCheckableThe evidence can settle the factual claim.
NoDeclinedThe claim depends on belief, value, preference, interpretation, or private evidence.
The boundary Our job is to make truth auditable, not to police what people are allowed to believe or say.

Not everything that sounds like a fact is one.

Some claims can’t be settled by any evidence because their truth depends on a belief, a value, a preference, or a reading — not on something a source outside that frame could measure.

On those claims, Veratify declines to render a verdict.

That is deliberate. A fact-checker that hands you a confident verdict on something genuinely unknowable is not being helpful. It is smuggling an opinion in under the authority of “fact.”

Two claims. Two different methods.

Verdict “Unemployment was below 5% in 2024.” A labor statistic can confirm or refute the claim.
Decline “The death penalty is wrong.” No dataset settles a moral question, even when the sentence sounds factual.
Preferred sources

Veratify uses a source hierarchy.

Primary records come first. Official data outranks commentary. Peer-reviewed research outranks unsupported claims. High-factual reporting is used to corroborate, not to substitute for evidence when a primary source exists.

I

Primary public records

Official U.S. government data and records

33 sources

Used first when the claim concerns U.S. law, agencies, statistics, public records, courts, health, weather, science, or official action.

Examples: census.gov · bls.gov · congress.gov · supremecourt.gov · cdc.gov · sec.gov

Full source list
  • census.gov
  • bls.gov
  • bea.gov
  • cdc.gov
  • nih.gov
  • fda.gov
  • nasa.gov
  • noaa.gov
  • usgs.gov
  • nist.gov
  • epa.gov
  • federalreserve.gov
  • treasury.gov
  • sec.gov
  • irs.gov
  • ssa.gov
  • gao.gov
  • cbo.gov
  • congress.gov
  • supremecourt.gov
  • uscourts.gov
  • justice.gov
  • fbi.gov
  • bjs.ojp.gov
  • state.gov
  • cbp.gov
  • energy.gov
  • usda.gov
  • archives.gov
  • loc.gov
  • medlineplus.gov
  • data.gov
  • weather.gov
II

International authorities

Intergovernmental and national statistical sources

15 sources

Used for global health, economics, trade, climate, international institutions, and non-U.S. official data.

Examples: who.int · un.org · imf.org · worldbank.org · oecd.org · gov.uk

Full source list
  • who.int
  • un.org
  • imf.org
  • worldbank.org
  • oecd.org
  • wto.org
  • europa.eu
  • ec.europa.eu
  • ecb.europa.eu
  • gov.uk
  • ons.gov.uk
  • statcan.gc.ca
  • abs.gov.au
  • ipcc.ch
  • esa.int
III

Peer-reviewed science and medicine

Journals, indexes, research repositories, and scientific institutions

19 sources

Used for claims about medicine, biology, public health, engineering, physics, climate, and scientific findings.

Examples: nature.com · nejm.org · jamanetwork.com · pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov · cochranelibrary.com · pnas.org

Full source list
  • nature.com
  • science.org
  • thelancet.com
  • nejm.org
  • bmj.com
  • jamanetwork.com
  • cell.com
  • pnas.org
  • ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  • pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
  • cochranelibrary.com
  • plos.org
  • arxiv.org
  • sciencedirect.com
  • springer.com
  • jstor.org
  • ieee.org
  • nationalacademies.org
  • aaas.org
IV

Trusted medical institutions

Clinical explainers and health-policy context

4 sources

Used for patient-facing medical explanations, health-policy context, and clinical background when primary evidence needs interpretation.

Examples: mayoclinic.org · clevelandclinic.org · hopkinsmedicine.org · kff.org

Full source list
  • mayoclinic.org
  • clevelandclinic.org
  • hopkinsmedicine.org
  • kff.org
V

Reference and public data

High-quality reference works and data explainers

9 sources

Used for background, definitions, historical facts, demographic data, and context that can be independently checked.

Examples: britannica.com · ourworldindata.org · pewresearch.org · merriam-webster.com · si.edu

Full source list
  • britannica.com
  • ourworldindata.org
  • pewresearch.org
  • gapminder.org
  • merriam-webster.com
  • oed.com
  • smithsonianmag.com
  • nationalgeographic.com
  • si.edu
VI

Technical standards

Formal internet, web, and standards bodies

4 sources

Used for technical claims about standards, protocols, governance, interoperability, and web infrastructure.

Examples: iso.org · ietf.org · w3.org · icann.org

Full source list
  • iso.org
  • ietf.org
  • w3.org
  • icann.org
VII

Highest-factual journalism

Wire services and reporting with strong factual discipline

16 sources

Used when no primary record is available yet, or when independent reporting is needed to corroborate a public claim.

Examples: reuters.com · apnews.com · bbc.com · npr.org · pbs.org · propublica.org

Full source list
  • reuters.com
  • apnews.com
  • bbc.com
  • npr.org
  • pbs.org
  • c-span.org
  • economist.com
  • wsj.com
  • nytimes.com
  • washingtonpost.com
  • ft.com
  • bloomberg.com
  • propublica.org
  • theguardian.com
  • axios.com
  • mit.edu
The complete list

Claims Veratify will not give a verdict on.

We decline on these, every time. No matter who says them. No matter how confidently they are stated.

Faith & beliefReligious or spiritual claims whose truth rests on a faith framework.“The soul is eternal.”
Moral & ethical claimsClaims about what is right, wrong, just, or ought to be.“Capital punishment is immoral.”
Opinion & tastePreference and aesthetic judgment.“Jazz is the greatest music.”
InterpretationContested readings of events, law, or meaning where reasonable people weigh the same facts differently.“This policy is executive overreach.”
FramingSweeping characterizations that bundle a value judgment into a summary.“The war on drugs has been a failure.”
Definitions & labelsClaims that turn on a contested definition rather than a fact.“Is X a religion, a cult, or a sport?”
PredictionsClaims about the future, which no present source can confirm.“AI will replace half of office jobs by 2035.”
CounterfactualsClaims about what would or would have happened in a world that did not occur.“The economy would be stronger under different leadership.”
Contested causationClaims about why something happened when the mechanism itself is disputed.“Social media is the cause of rising teen anxiety.”

We also decline non-literal speech.

Veratify does not render verdicts on satire, jokes, fiction, song lyrics, or other speech that is not asserting a literal fact to begin with.

We also decline content outside our coverage, including purely local matters we cannot source.

Part fact

When a claim includes a checkable fact, we check it.

For example: “attendance doubled to 5,000.” If public evidence can confirm the number, Veratify checks that part.

Part frame

When a claim adds an unsettleable frame, we decline that part.

For example: “which proves divine favor.” That is outside what public evidence can establish.

What we commit to

Declining is not the default. It is reserved for the genuinely unsettleable.

Veratify gives real, evidence-backed verdicts on the large world of checkable claims. When the evidence is there, we say so plainly. And we show you the sources, so you never have to take our word for it.

Official statisticsAgency datasets, public records, and documented measurements.
Documented eventsClaims about what happened, when, and where.
Voting and legislative recordsVotes, bills, public actions, and official government records.
Scientific findingsClaims that can be checked against research, measurements, and published evidence.
Quotes against the recordWhether someone said what they are claimed to have said.
Images in contextManipulation, wrong context, or misleading use of real imagery.
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When the evidence can settle it, Veratify checks it.

When it cannot, Veratify tells you why. Questions about how a specific verdict was reached? Every Veratify result links the sources behind it.

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