Maarten Schenk's Avatar

Maarten Schenk

@mschenk.bsky.social

Fact checker. Co-founder of leadstories.com.

7,335 Followers  |  5,282 Following  |  633 Posts  |  Joined: 10.11.2024  |  2.1146

Latest posts by mschenk.bsky.social on Bluesky

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For some reason there doesn't seem to be much of a line at the Wieliczka Salt Mine for the Russian-language tour...

#Poland #vacation

09.08.2025 07:43 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Column | Zuckerberg fired the fact-checkers. We tested their replacement. Our tech columnist drafted 65 community notes, Meta’s new crowdsourced system to fight falsehoods. It failed to make a dent.

Meta fired its fact-checkers, citing concerns of liberal bias, and replaced them with a version of X's "Community Notes." How's that going?

Well, my coworker @geoffreyfowler.bsky.social proposed 65 fact-checks debunking false posts... and only 3 got approved. www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

04.08.2025 21:00 β€” πŸ‘ 340    πŸ” 146    πŸ’¬ 10    πŸ“Œ 8
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Stories from @leadstories.com: Now also via Yahoo! News...

www.yahoo.com/news/article...

24.07.2025 13:49 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Fact Check: Trump Organization Epstein Letter Image Does NOT Match Description In Wall Street Journal -- Several Differences | Lead Stories Does a viral image match the description of the birthday note Donald Trump sent to Jeffrey Epstein as given in...

Elements in the image do not match the description in the WSJ, such as the location of the text relative to the drawing and missing elements in the text. The WSJ also didn't mention any Trump Organization letterhead, which would be odd to omit.

leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2...

21.07.2025 09:39 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Fact Check: Trump Organization Epstein Letter Image Does NOT Match Description In Wall Street Journal -- Several Differences Does a viral image match the description of the birthday note Donald Trump sent to Jeffrey Epstein as given in a July 17, 2025 Wall Street Journal story? No, that's not true: Several elements in the image do not match...

Fact Check: Trump Organization Epstein Letter Image Does NOT Match Description In Wall Street Journal -- Several Differences

21.07.2025 09:30 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Curious about the case of missing hikers "Sarah Bennett" and "Andrew Miller"?

* Google gives you two bogus videos, a summary of the fake story and a link to it on Facebook above the fact check that explains it is all fake.

* Bing gives you the fact check in position one

* So does DuckDuckGo

18.07.2025 12:03 β€” πŸ‘ 9    πŸ” 4    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1

Woah! Main stage on fire at Tomorrowland festival in Belgium.

Festival hadn't started yet, luckily.

16.07.2025 17:07 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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I love AI slop (the term, not the content itself) but it contains multitudes. In my latest for @indicator.media, I propose a taxonomy that differentiates it by form and purpose. Feedback welcome from slop savants!

indicator.media/p/a-tentativ...

16.07.2025 15:09 β€” πŸ‘ 14    πŸ” 8    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
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Context:

16.07.2025 15:46 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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This was not on my bingo card for 2025...

16.07.2025 15:42 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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Want to buy a non-existent "$300 electric helicopter from China"?

Google's AI says you can and puts the fact check in 3rd place, below the fold.

Bing gives you the fact check in positions 1 *and* 2.

DuckDuckGo puts the fact check in position 1.

#factchecking #factcheck #Google #Bing #DuckDuckGo

16.07.2025 10:40 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Comparing Google, Bing and DuckDuckGo on a recent fake story about a "Sheriff Larry Leda":

Google: AI Overview repeating the false claim, fact check in 9th position.

Bing: Fact check in 1st position

DuckDuckGo: Fact check in 1st position

But sure, stop using ClaimReview, Google...

14.07.2025 13:06 β€” πŸ‘ 18    πŸ” 7    πŸ’¬ 2    πŸ“Œ 0
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Fact Check: FAKE 'Sheriff Larry Leda Applying For Green Card For Mexican Rescue Team' Video Misspells Name -- No Media Reports Is a viral video a real news report about a "Sheriff Larry Leda" saying he'd apply for a green card for the Mexican rescue team that saved his family? No, that's not true: The footage in the viral video came...

Fact Check: FAKE 'Sheriff Larry Leda Applying For Green Card For Mexican Rescue Team' Video Misspells Name -- No Media Reports

13.07.2025 09:10 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Fact Check: FAKE 'Sheriff Larry Leda Applying For Green Card For Mexican Rescue Team' Video Misspells Name -- No Media Reports | Lead Stories Is a viral video a real news report about a "Sheriff Larry Leda" saying he'd apply for a green card...

leadstories.com/hoax-alert/2...

13.07.2025 10:21 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

"SmartWheel, now with AI built-in!"

12.07.2025 14:28 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Benieuwd! En succes!

10.07.2025 13:06 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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It appears the other site is blocking all searches for posts with the latest links containing domain names...

08.07.2025 15:57 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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SCOTUS declined to review case against Poynter, Meta The U.S. Supreme Court on June 30 declined to review a case filed against Meta and the Poynter Institute, PolitiFact’s parent organization, by Children’s Health Defense, a legal advocacy group founde...

Not with a bang but with a whimper, another case against moderating misinformation collapses

www.politifact.com/article/2025...

03.07.2025 17:10 β€” πŸ‘ 30    πŸ” 6    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Great to hear that WHAT TO FIX's latest investigation into Meta's revenue redistribution programs is drawing some scrutiny from the European Commission.

We have a LOT of questions.

Unsurprisingly though, Meta isn't volunteering answers πŸ˜…

Read Euractiv's piece: lnkd.in/g5S5pNzM

27.06.2025 13:31 β€” πŸ‘ 1    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
How Meta Platforms Ireland Ltd. May Have Violated EU Sanctions And Channeled Money To RT, Sputnik And Other EU-Sanctioned Entities Via Facebook’s Revenue Redistribution Programs Facebook pages affiliated with RT, Sputnik and other EU-sanctioned entities were among Meta’s active partner-publishers for months after being subject to EU sanctions. Some of these partnerships remai...

Watching a very interesting @riovictoire.bsky.social webinar about this:
www.whattofix.tech/publications...

03.07.2025 12:37 β€” πŸ‘ 3    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 1    πŸ“Œ 0
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when trying on a suit, do this in the store. then tell the sales associate "the menswear guy told me to do this."

IG oldhollywoodmusicals

03.07.2025 03:12 β€” πŸ‘ 9583    πŸ” 963    πŸ’¬ 326    πŸ“Œ 97
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Happy 37M users on Bluesky day to those who celebrate!

02.07.2025 13:50 β€” πŸ‘ 7    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

Dat is wat ze willen dat je denkt ;-)

27.06.2025 12:20 β€” πŸ‘ 0    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Community Notes on X are facing a hard time scaling. What started as a promising tool to crowdsource fact-checking is now getting slower, with fewer active contributors. It’s even harder when powerful accounts like Elon Musk’s are rarely tagged with visible notes.
#GlobalFact12 in #Brasil

26.06.2025 15:01 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Our verification plugin v0.86 (@InVID_EU @WeVerify @vera-ai.bsky.social) is published!
It is now available in PortuguΓͺs (do Brasil) and Hungarian!
It includes UI improvements on archiving and deepfake detection (face swapping).
#globalfact12

26.06.2025 12:30 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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β€˜Self-regulation has proven a failure’: Brazilian leaders defend the need for social media regulation - Poynter GlobalFact speakers urge social platforms to fight disinformation: β€˜Freedom of expression but freedom of expression with responsibility’

Very good summary of the opening session.

#GlobalFact #GlobalFact12

www.poynter.org/fact-checkin...

26.06.2025 11:47 β€” πŸ‘ 2    πŸ” 1    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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The truth is still worth fighting for - Poynter As fact-checkers gather in Rio this week, the fight for information integrity has never been more urgent.

Staight from #GlobalFact12

www.poynter.org/fact-checkin...

#globalfact #factchecking

25.06.2025 17:58 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 3    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 1
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Such cool Friend Sponsors! #GlobalFact12 #GlobalFact

25.06.2025 15:10 β€” πŸ‘ 6    πŸ” 2    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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Ready for #GlobalFact to start...

25.06.2025 12:21 β€” πŸ‘ 5    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0
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When in Rio...

24.06.2025 12:22 β€” πŸ‘ 8    πŸ” 0    πŸ’¬ 0    πŸ“Œ 0

@mschenk is following 20 prominent accounts