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We appreciate and welcome any suggestions or corrections from our readers. These can be submitted through emails, comments, or phone calls. If we receive any complaints about the accuracy of our content, we promptly review the matter and re-verify the facts.
Once the facts have been thoroughly evaluated, we make a thoughtful decision and respond appropriately to the feedback. Depending on the validity and significance of the error, we either remove or edit the published information or provide an explanation to the reader if the original information is determined to not be a mistake. We also share information on how we came to the conclusion.
In accordance with our correction policy, we have taken steps to combat misinformation by forming a team dedicated to regularly fact-checking and monitoring the content on our website.
If there are any appeals regarding our fact-checked stories, we take note of the information provided, and follow our standard operating procedures and International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) guidelines to make any necessary corrections. We also keep a record of the stories that required corrections and who among our team members was responsible for them.
The correction record is also included in the biography of the fact-checker who conducted the relevant fact-check. This information is listed below their biography.
The Vishvas News team also provides fact-checking and news verification training to our journalists across all departments.
Updates / Corrections by the authors:
1: July 10, 2018
It was brought to our notice by Facebook affiliated fact checkers that a piece of information in one of our stories was wrong. We probed and found that the news published by us was indeed factually incorrect. We re-worked on the story, corrected all the facts and republished the same with a disclaimer that the story has been updated and the information that was published earlier was wrong.
2: Sept 07, 2018
Below is the sample of story which was reported by our user as fake and we did a fact check and updated the correct story.
3: July 03, 2019
Vishvas News Team member (Employee ID- PN0065) did a fact-check story on a viral post on Facebook in which an image of an ice cream vendor was used with the claim — ‘गंगा घाट कोतवाली क्षेत्र के अंतर्गत कोतवाली के सामने आइसक्रीम बेचने वाले #राकेश (#दलित) को #जयश्रीराम ना कहने पर #मुसलमान समझकर #भगवागुंडों ने मारा पीटा।”.
He debunked the false claim made in the Facebook post and published a story on the facts. Later, another team member (Employee ID- PN0046) rated the same users’ post on Facebook.
Below was the link of the story team created to debunk the false claim made by the user in his Facebook post –
https://www.vishvasnews.com/society/fact-check-ice-cream-vendors-image-viral-with-fake-claim/
Later, Team member with Emp ID – PN0046 found that the same images were being used with similar false claims by few other users as well on Facebook. The post was mistakenly rated as false which had the same image but correct description, “गंगा घाट कोतवाली क्षेत्र के अंतर्गत कोतवाली के सामने आइसक्रीम बेचने वाले को मारा पीटा पैसे छीनने का आरोप”. The Facebook page owner raised the issue with us and the required correction in the rating of the post was made following the guidelines and our correction policy.
4: July 29, 2018
Vishvas News noticed a strike on Vishvas News Facebook Page on 29th July at 8.30 PM. It happened because Vishvas News Team member (Emp ID: PN0043) mistakenly rated our own story in Facebook dashboard. He had submitted Vishvas News’ fact-checked reference article in related content category. As a result, Vishvas News’s Facebook page received a strike. Later, the rating was corrected by him.
This was the story which was by mistake rated as false –
5: August, 2019
During our internal audit, the must-follow practice of Physical Verification was not followed in these stories. It was a case of the SOP violation as the team needs to follow the guidelines. Later, the required updates were added in all these stories. The author of these stories – Rama Solanki – has been disassociated from the fact-checking team.
https://www.vishvasnews.com/politics/fact-check-the-banner-in-the-viral-image-is-photoshoped/
6: Sept 16, 2019
Vishvas News received a claim on a story which was done on Sept 14 by Vishvas News Team member (Emp ID: PN0041)). Below is the story URL
Vishvas News received a mail from the admin of ‘Fir Ek Bar Modi Sarkar’ Facebook page claiming the rating given on its post by Vishvas News was incorrect. The author of the story didn’t get a required quote from Youth Congress. As per the IFCN guidelines and the SOP, Vishvas News made necessary correction in the story and changed the rating of the Facebook post from False to True.
7: Jan 16, 2020
On January 6, Vishvas News Team’s Fact Checker (Employee ID PN0058) had done a fact check story on the viral 3D image of Australian map showing the intensity of bushfire. The image was also going viral with a fake claim saying it was taken from a NASA satellite. The Fact chcker who was working on the story (Employee ID PN0058) had done the investigation properly following all the guidelines and got a quote from the creator of the 3D image who confirmed that the image was produced using the bushfire data provided by NASA. Below is the URL of the Vishvas News story-
https://www.vishvasnews.com/
Vishvas News works as the Third-Party Fact Check Partner with Facebook. If the viral posts are takem from Facebook, Vishvas News (after the completion of fact checking process) rates the post as – False, True, Misleading on the basis of the fact-check outcome in the story. There is a separate guideline to follow to rate the posts for Facebook, as some images are correct but the claims with the images are either fake or misleading, and sometimes both images and the claims are incorrect. In these scenarios Vishvas News goes with the options – either ‘On single post’ or ‘identical content’ optons. In the above story, the image was absolutely fine in the Facebook post, but the description used with the image was incorrect, and the same was mentioned properly in the story done by the fact checker author. But, during the story rating process, the author marked the story as ‘identical content’. As a result, some Facebook users received message of ‘fake image fact-checked by an Independent fact-checker’ even if they used the correct description with the image. Vishvas News was not able to correct the rating due to a technical issue which we faced because the user mentioned in Vishvas News story had deleted his Facebook post. It took a week day time to resolve the technical issue, and it was fixed on Jan 15.
Vishvas News received 13 appeal mails by different Facebook users due the ‘identical content’ issue. All of them had used the image with the correct description with the image but received ‘fake image’ message due to the technical glitch. Vishvas News contacted all of them in separate mails and explained the issue on January 9. And, once the issue was resolved, Vishvas News again sent a confirmation mail to all of them.
The Vishvas News fact checker (Employee ID PN0058), who rated the post with incorrect option, was asked to explain (why it happened) in an official mail and the required action was taken against her as per the guidelines and policy after her response.
8: May 7, 2020
Another Team member (Employee ID PN0058) had done a story on a viral video which claimed that it was Rishi Kapoor’s last video in which he was listening and praising a young man in the hospital where the actor was admitted. Once the story was done, the first team member (Employee ID PN0043), while rating the video in Facebook dashboard, had rated it with the option – ‘Video only’. Later, the rating was changed to the option – ‘Video with Text Together’.
https://www.vishvasnews.com/urdu/viral/fact-check-no-this-not-the-last-video-of-rishi-kapoor-viral-claim-is-fake/
9: May 26, 2020
On this story, Vishvas News received an appeal in which the user said he has made the required correction on the post in the Facebook page. Following the SOP and Guideline, a Team member (Employee ID PN0041) changed the rating to this story on May 26.
https://www.vishvasnews.com/politics/fact-check-in-this-old-viral-video-an-imposter-is-being-thrashed-by-locals/
10: May 31, 2020
The story done by team member (Employee ID PN0043) was updated on May 31 to remove an unnecessary paragraph which was not required in the story.
https://www.vishvasnews.com/politics/fact-check-nepals-old-photo-goes-viral-in-the-name-of-india-this-photo-has-no-relation-with-lockdown/
11: May 31, 2020
The story done by a team member (Employee ID PN0046) was updated on May 31 to remove an unnecessary paragraph which was not required in the story.
https://www.vishvasnews.com/politics/fact-check-no-labour-ministry-is-not-giving-rs-1-2-lakh-to-labourers-who-worked-between-1990-2020/
12: May 31, 2020
The story done by a team member (Employee ID PN0059) was updated on May 31 to remove an unnecessary paragraph which was not required in the story.
https://www.vishvasnews.com/english/health/fact-check-no-who-didnt-warn-against-consuming-cabbage-to-prevent-covid-19/
https://www.vishvasnews.com/english/health/fact-check-no-mustard-oil-cannot-cure-coronavirus-however-it-has-certain-health-benefits/
https://www.vishvasnews.com/english/health/fact-check-who-didnt-issue-proposal-for-extending-lockdowns-to-control-covid-19-fake-post-getting-viral-2/
13: May 31, 2020
The story done by a team member (Employee ID PN0058) was updated on May 31 to remove an unnecessary paragraph which was not required in the story. The story was done in Urdu. The original story was done by (Employee ID PN0059)
https://www.vishvasnews.com/urdu/viral/fact-check-no-report-claims-that-cabbage-can-absorb-coronavirus-for-30-hour/
The story was done in Urdu. The original story was done by (Employee ID PN0043)
https://www.vishvasnews.com/urdu/viral/fact-check-nepals-old-photo-goes-viral-claimed-as-india-photo-but-this-viral-picture-has-no-relation-with-india-or-lockdown/
The story was done in Urdu. The original story was done by (Employee ID PN0041)
https://www.vishvasnews.com/urdu/politics/fact-check-gargle-with-saline-water-or-vinegar-can-not-cure-coronavirus-viral-claim-is-fake/
14: June 4, 2020
Team Vishvas News Member (Employee ID PN0043) had done an article in which it was wrongly mentioned that Congress MLA has been suspended by the party. The story was corrected with the correct information and a disclaimer on that was also put in the story.
https://www.vishvasnews.com/politics/fact-check-aditi-singh-a-suspeneded-mla-from-congress-did-not-join-bjp-with-5-mlas-viral-post-is-fake/
15: June 30, 2020: The story done by team member (Employee ID PN0065) was published on June 30 and later that day the story was updated with one paragraph. However, it doesn’t impact our conclusion.
https://www.vishvasnews.com/
16: July 8, 2020
Vishvas News Team’s Fact Checker did a story in which we removed one of the paragraphs which was a value addition to the story and was not needed. We put a disclaimer in this story.
17; December 18, 2020
The story done by team member (Employee ID PN0043) was updated on 18th Dec 2020 to remove an unnecessary paragraph which was not required in the story.
https://www.vishvasnews.com/politics/fake-order-of-tourism-ministry-viral/
https://www.vishvasnews.com/society/fact-check-no-corona-virus-in-fish-in-madhya-pradesh/
18: December 18, 2020
The story done by team member (Employee ID PN0043) was updated on 18th Dec 2020 to remove an unnecessary paragraph which was not required in the story.
19: August 04, 2021
The story done by a team member (Employee ID PN0046) was updated on Aug 4, 2021 to add an additional input shared by the photographer, who clicked the viral image, after the publishing of the story.
20: November 26, 2022
The story done by team member (Employee ID PN0058) on November 25, 2022 was updated the next day. The fact check article was done before the death of an actor on November 25. The article was updated with latest information on November 26 after the actor passed passed away.
21: December 12, 2022
A story by a team member (Employee ID L70004) of Vishvas News was updated on December 12, 2022. In this, a paragraph was removed, which was not needed in that story.
22: January 23, 2023
A story by a team member (Employee ID L70003 ) of Vishvas News was updated on December 23, 2023. In this, a paragraph was removed, which was not needed in that story. Another paragraph was added in place of the existing paragraph.
If the users believe that we are violating the IFCN Code, they may inform the IFCN of this. The link to the complaints page on the IFCN site: https://ifcncodeofprinciples.
As of April 2024, this information remains current and accurate, reflecting the most recent updates and developments in the given context.
