Rest of World has retracted the story headlined “Fake news verification tools fail the test during elections in India,” which was previously on this page and originally published on May 24, 2024. Upon review, we determined that the piece did not meet our editorial standards for accuracy and journalistic integrity.
As part of our reporting for this story, Rest of World ran an experiment by sending AI content through a number of verification tools built by fact-checking organizations, and called out repeated failures to identify “fake” material. Rest of World failed to reach out to all of the organizations named in the story to account for, or respond to, perceived lapses in their fact-checking systems. As a result, we failed to identify potential flaws in our own reporting methodology. After publication, a number of the fact-checking organizations featured in the story noted that our queries were flagged as spam by their tip lines. Our story also contained inaccuracies about the number of queries sent to the tip lines, the number of accurate responses, and the response time from the tip lines.
We deeply regret any harm that our reporting has caused. Rest of World is dedicated to upholding the highest editorial standards, and we take full responsibility for the oversight. Our commitment to our readers is to provide accurate, reliable, and thoroughly verified news. We fell short of this commitment.
We have removed the article from our site and are conducting a thorough review to identify journalistic lapses within the Rest of World newsroom. We have also removed previously shared posts from social media platforms that promoted the story.
Reporting on the challenges and impact of AI will continue to be a priority for Rest of World, and as we pursue these stories in the future, we will ensure that our reporting lives up to the highest editorial standards.
— Anup Kaphle, Editor-in-Chief