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You can trust an online claim only to the extent that its source, evidence, and context hold up to checking. Treat a claim as a lead—not as fact just because it appears on a familiar site or is repeated across many pages. For technical questions as well as news, trace important claims to their original evidence and check whether other sources reached the same conclusion independently.
Why the internet is not a single trustworthy source
The internet is a delivery channel, not an editor or quality guarantee. Established publishers and individual contributors can publish side by side, and the ease of publishing means a polished page is not proof that its claims are accurate. Judge the particular author, publisher, evidence, and context rather than deciding whether the internet as a whole is reliable.
That also means a source that has been dependable before can still make a mistake. Keep your standards consistent: inspect the claim and its support, including when the claim matches what you already believe.
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- Identify the exact claim. Separate what the page directly establishes from interpretation, prediction, or a broader conclusion. Check dates and context when the claim could change over time.
- Inspect the source. Find out who wrote or published the material and what evidence the page offers. A confident tone or familiar name is not a substitute for support.
- Follow the references. Open cited sources and see whether they actually support the claim. When possible, continue to the original document, data, or explanation rather than relying on a summary of it.
- Look for independent confirmation. Compare sources that did their own reporting or analysis. Several pages repeating the same wording or citing the same source may amount to one origin, not several confirmations.
- Match your confidence to the evidence. If a consequential claim cannot be checked, do not repeat it as established fact. Seek better-supported information or say clearly that it remains unverified.
What counts as independent corroboration?
Corroboration is meaningful when sources have reached a conclusion through separate evidence or work. Reposting, paraphrasing, or citing one another does not create independent support. Leo A. Notenboom makes this point in his Ask Leo! article: “The problem is this: information from a single source is often republished, reposted, reworded, and otherwise re-presented on multiple websites and sources.”
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Follow the citation chain: if several articles ultimately rely on one report, treat that report as the origin and evaluate it directly. If you cannot establish that publishers did their own work, do not count the pages as separate evidence.
How to use common kinds of online sources
Wikipedia
Wikipedia can be a useful starting point, but its quality varies. Treat an entry’s references as leads to check, especially for obscure or controversial subjects. Also consider whether another site is simply republishing Wikipedia rather than supplying independent confirmation.
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Fact-checking sites
A fact-check can help you locate evidence, but no single site should settle a question by itself. Compare checks from independent sources, favor those that cite their evidence, and inspect those citations to see what they establish.
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For technical subjects such as IP addresses, online material can be useful when it is clearly explained and supported by references. Check the author’s evidence and confirm important details with independent sources; the medium alone does not make a technical claim reliable or unreliable.
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How much checking is enough?
Scale your effort to what you might do with the information. A low-stakes fact you are using for orientation may need less scrutiny than a claim you plan to act on, teach, or share as certain. For important decisions, trace the evidence, seek independent confirmation, and keep uncertainty visible when the sources do not resolve it.
Over time, keep a working list of sources whose reporting and references have repeatedly held up. “More trusted” is a practical judgment, not permanent certification: continue checking new claims rather than accepting them automatically.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.When an online claim remains uncertain
- Do not present it as established fact.
- Describe what the available source actually says, rather than extending it beyond its evidence.
- Look for the original source or genuinely independent confirmation before relying on or sharing the claim.
The Ask Leo! article was updated March 21, 2020, and its publisher’s 2020 archive lists it on that date. Its named examples should be understood in that dated context; the checking method is to evaluate the sources and evidence you encounter now.
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