How to verify a political news claim before sharing it
Direct answer
Find the original record and match the date, place and full context. ECI records are appropriate primary sources for election schedules and results; Assembly records for legislative membership. Repeated sharing alone is not verification.
A TamilTick Editorial Desk guide prepared with AI assistance. Sources and verification limits are listed below. This is not an individually reported field dispatch.
Define the claim you are checking
“This party has won”, “this member resigned” and “the polling date changed” are separate claims. Break a long post into a precise, checkable sentence before labelling the whole post true or false.
Record who, what, when and where. An old speech can be circulated as current; a cropped document can omit a condition. If you cannot inspect the full record, state that limit.
Source: ECI: Myth vs Reality register · PIB: launch of ECI’s Myth vs Reality register
Match the primary source to the claim
Check ECI notices or result records for election schedules and outcomes, and current Assembly records for membership. A party statement establishes what that party said; it is not independent proof that every claim in it is correct.
Match the date, state, seat number and full document title. A screenshot with an official-looking stamp is not a substitute for the source’s actual URL.
Source: ECI: Tamil Nadu 2026 Assembly results · Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly: official website · ECI: Myth vs Reality register
Several links may still rely on one source
Multiple sites can republish one agency report, or quote the same social-media post. Do not count these as separate direct confirmations. Read what each report relies on.
Open the original reports linked from a TamilTick story and distinguish independent reporting, copies of one statement and commentary. Similar or different headlines can still share the same underlying evidence gap.
Source: TamilTick: coverage methodology
Keep uncertainty and corrections visible
Check whether ECI’s Myth vs Reality register addresses the election claim. No entry does not mean a claim is true. If the original record is unavailable, “not yet verified” communicates the actual state of evidence.
When correcting a shared claim, identify the error, the correct record and where readers can inspect it. Deleting the old post alone does not inform its earlier readers. Do not turn a reported allegation into an established finding.
Source: ECI: Myth vs Reality register · PIB: launch of ECI’s Myth vs Reality register
Frequently asked questions
Is a screenshot enough?
Without the original URL and full document, checking the date, context or edits is difficult. Do not treat it as complete verification.
Source: ECI: Myth vs Reality register · ECI: Tamil Nadu 2026 Assembly results
Do two sites mean two sources?
They may rely on the same report or post. Establish whether the underlying primary evidence is independent.
Source: TamilTick: coverage methodology
Is a claim true if no fact-check entry exists?
No register covers every claim. Find the appropriate original document, or keep the uncertainty explicit.
Source: ECI: Myth vs Reality register · PIB: launch of ECI’s Myth vs Reality register
Limits of this guide
- This guide does not adjudicate every individual political claim.
- An official statement establishes the institution’s stated position; it does not replace all evidence in a disputed matter.
Sources and checks
- ECI: Myth vs Reality register
The official register was read and includes corrections of claims about election dates, EVMs and voter services. Absence of an entry does not establish that a claim is true. Checked on: .
- PIB: launch of ECI’s Myth vs Reality register
The official announcement identifies the register as a service for addressing election misinformation. Checked on: .
- ECI: Tamil Nadu 2026 Assembly results
The official result page was identified in the search index and the source manifest of our versioned 2026 seat data. Direct retrieval failed; no new result or current office-holder was verified here. Checked on: .
- Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly: official website
The homepage and its 17th Assembly Members link were read directly. The complete directory was not retrievable in this check; this guide does not certify any current member name. Checked on: .
- TamilTick: coverage methodology
The site’s authored methodology text and metrics.py definitions were checked: headline-name matching, deduplication, observation windows and source gaps. Checked on: .
Related pages
More explainers
- How to find your current MLA in Tamil NaduIdentify your Assembly constituency, then check the current Tamil Nadu Assembly member directory. An old election winner can differ from the current MLA.
- How to read the Tamil Nadu 2026 election resultsUnderstand a constituency result, party seats and statewide vote share. Check the election year, seat number, result status and official Form 20 record.
- Election margin and vote share: what is the difference?A winning margin is the gap between the winner and runner-up. Vote share needs a stated denominator. Understand percentage points with a labelled arithmetic example.