@online{Ribeiro2109.09322,
TITLE = {What Do Fact Checkers Fact-check When?},
AUTHOR = {Ribeiro, Manoel Horta and Zannettou, Savvas and Goga, Oana and Benevenuto, Fabricio and West, Robert},
LANGUAGE = {eng},
URL = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2109.09322},
EPRINT = {2109.09322},
EPRINTTYPE = {arXiv},
YEAR = {2021},
ABSTRACT = {Recent research suggests that not all fact checking efforts are equal: when<br>and what is fact checked plays a pivotal role in effectively correcting<br>misconceptions. In this paper, we propose a framework to study fact checking<br>efforts using Google Trends, a signal that captures search interest over topics<br>on the world's largest search engine. Our framework consists of extracting<br>claims from fact checking efforts, linking such claims with knowledge graph<br>entities, and estimating the online attention they receive. We use this<br>framework to study a dataset of 879 COVID-19-related fact checks done in 2020<br>by 81 international organizations. Our findings suggest that there is often a<br>disconnect between online attention and fact checking efforts. For example, in<br>around 40% of countries where 10 or more claims were fact checked, half or more<br>than half of the top 10 most popular claims were not fact checked. Our analysis<br>also shows that claims are first fact checked after receiving, on average, 35%<br>of the total online attention they would eventually receive in 2020. Yet, there<br>is a big variation among claims: some were fact checked before receiving a<br>surge of misinformation-induced online attention, others are fact checked much<br>later. Overall, our work suggests that the incorporation of online attention<br>signals may help organizations better assess and prioritize their fact checking<br>efforts. Also, in the context of international collaboration, where claims are<br>fact checked multiple times across different countries, online attention could<br>help organizations keep track of which claims are "migrating" between different<br>countries.<br>},
}