Collection
Snopestionary: What Is a 'Misinformation Ouroboros'?
Research tips and tricks from the fact-checkers at Snopes.
by Snopes Staff , July 28, 2021
Image courtesy of Snopes
There's nothing mysterious about fact-checking. It takes a nose for bunk, a commitment to answering misinformation with hard facts and evidence, and the determination to dig for facts and keep on digging till you get to the truth.
The process might start with connecting the dots between questionable social media accounts, doing a reverse-image search on suspect photographs, making contact with expert sources, or taking a deep dive into an online newspaper archive. In a word, research. There's a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips if you know how to find it.
Misinformation is everyone's problem. The more we can all get involved, the better job we can do combating it. To that end, we've started compiling a list of concise how-tos by our reporters and editors for anyone interested in fact-checking and internet research. You'll find our first "Snopes-ing 101" entries below. If you have specific questions you'd like answered or clarified, please contact us!
By Snopes Staff
The Snopes Guide to Logical Fallacies
May 31, 2022
Logical fallacies are behind many of the harmful misunderstandings, rumors, and conspiracy theor ...
Read More
A Guide to Archiving on the Internet
Nov. 12, 2022
And why having records is essential for fact-checkers.
Read More
Snopestionary: What is the 'Black Sheep Effect'?
Aug. 17, 2022
On social media and in life, many tend to treat deviating members of their own groups more harsh ...
Read More
Snopestionary: What Is Sponsored Content?
July 19, 2022
Also called "native advertising," it can be as innocent as a restaurant ad on your newsfeed, or ...
Read More
Snopestionary: What Is Confirmation Bias?
July 27, 2022
Just because we want something to be true doesn’t make it so.
Read More
Snopestionary: What Is an Echo Chamber?
June 24, 2022
Both in person and online, echo chambers reinforce our own viewpoints and hinder our ability to ...
Read More
How to Spot a Deepfake
June 8, 2022
For starters, don't believe everything you see.
Read More
Clearing the Frame: Seeing Through Disingenuous Captions
April 15, 2022
Bird poop? Shaking hands with thin air? Captions can falsely frame shared content in politically ...
Read More
Snopes Tips: A Guide To Performing Reverse Image Searches
March 22, 2022
Knowing how to perform a reverse image search is vital for social media users.
Read More
Snopes Tips: Why Care if Research Is 'Peer-Reviewed'?
March 30, 2022
A how-to guide to reading scientific research.
Read More
Media Literacy: How to Spot T-Shirts Bearing Fabricated Messages
March 30, 2022
Sometimes, misinformation wears its heart on its sleeve.
Read More
How Snopes Monitors 'Virtue Signaling' on Social Media
Jan. 31, 2022
June 1 marks the beginning of Pride Month — and likely a flood of posts recognizing the celebrat ...
Read More
Snopes Tips: How To Detect and Avoid Online Scams
Feb. 27, 2022
There are countless "exclusive reward," "free coupon," and "free product" scams on social media. ...
Read More
Snopes Tips: How To Avoid Ad Arbitrage Clickbait
Jan. 2, 2022
"Ad arbitrage" is when website owners create stories that are broken up into multiple pages, pla ...
Read More
Snopes Tips: Honing Your Search Skills
Dec. 12, 2021
How to harness the power of search engines to find the information you want.
Read More
Red Flags: How to Identify Suspicious Rumors
March 28, 2022
For International Fact-Checking Day, we look at common techniques used to identify dubious stori ...
Read More
Snopes Tips: Identifying the 'Right' Results in a Search Engine
Nov. 27, 2021
Vigilance is the order of the day.
Read More
Snopes Tips: How to Spot Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior
Dec. 18, 2021
People and groups sometimes hide their identities on social media in order to mislead and/or inf ...
Read More
Snopes Tips: How to Spot Social Media Bots
July 25, 2022
Bots are used for a variety of reasons online, from boosting follower counts to interfering in p ...
Read More
Snopestionary: Misinformation vs. Disinformation
Dec. 26, 2021
Both words refer to false information, but one type is more insidious than the other.
Read More
Snopestionary: What Is Copypasta?
Sept. 19, 2021
Before there was "sharing" — before there was even social media — there was copying and pasting ...
Read More
Snopesing 101: How Snopes Fact Checks Racial Propaganda
Jan. 15, 2022
And how you, the reader, can do the same ...
Read More
Snopestionary: What Is 'Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior'?
Sept. 4, 2021
Social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have taken steps to bar such behavior by users.
Read More
Snopestionary: What Is 'Troll Bait'?
Jan. 8, 2022
A quick primer on troll bait and why you shouldn't take it.
Read More
Snopestionary: What Does 'Shadow-Ban' Mean?
Dec. 11, 2021
Sometimes the reason no one seems to be reading your social media posts is that a platform has h ...
Read More
Snopestionary: What Is the 'Mandela Effect'?
July 24, 2016
The Mandela Effect is a collective misremembering of a fact or event. Various theories have been ...
Read More
Snopestionary: What is a Spoonerism?
Jan. 23, 2022
This merbal vistake gets its name from a long-serving don at Oxford University.
Read More
Snopestionary: What Is a 'Misinformation Ouroboros'?
July 28, 2021
The image of a snake eating its own tail is a metaphor at least as ancient as the tomb of Tutank ...
Read More
Source code