Bing has joined Google in the fight against fake news with the inclusion of the “Fact Check” label in search results.
Both news and regular web pages may receive the Fact Check label, provided Bing is able to determine they contain fact checked information.
Another requirement for receiving the Fact Check label is schema.org ClaimReview markup.
Bing notes the markup alone isn’t enough though, the site owner must also provide evidence of the content being fact checked.
Bing also advises that your content meets the following criteria before using the fact check markup:
- Analysis must cite sources and be transparent about methods used.
- Claims and claim checks must be easy for readers to see within the body content. It must be made clear to readers what was checked and the conclusions reached.
- The page hosting the ClaimReview markup must have a brief summary of the fact check and evaluation.
Bing warns that if a site decides to use ClaimReview markup without following the criteria then it may penalize the site.
Google first introduced the Fact Check label earlier this year, and now Bing is following suit.
With so much information on the web it can be difficult to get all sides of a story, or check the validity of everything you read.
The more we can rely on search engines to deliver relevant, factual results the better off we are as web users.
It would be nice to see more search engines adopt Fact Check and ClaimReview markup in the future.
