Iffy.news, an index of unreliable news sites

Misinformation is a thriving internet industry, propped up by advertising dollars, political donations, and social media shares.

Researchers have released scores of reports trying to figure out how falsehoods spread online. These studies often rely on lists of "fake-news" sources. But these lists are incomplete and out-of-date, full of 404s.

Better data means better results, for researchers, reporters, and readers. So I've built a better dataset.

Iffy.news compiles data from Media Bias/Fact Check (MBFC) and NewsGuard, the only news-site credibility reviewers that meet these criteria: Have a team of reviewers (i.e., not just one person's opinion). Stay current, continually rating new sites and reconsidering past ratings. Accept feedback from publishers. Justify each review with links to reliable sources — the same transparency we'd ask of any news outlet.

Political leaning is not a factor. Sites are in the Iffy index (see methodology) only if they fail in one of these ways:

Index

Methodology

What's in Iffy?

The Iffy index includes sites that have an MBFC Factual Reporting rating of "low" or "very low" or a NewsGuard "Red: Proceed with caution" score (below 60, their threshold for credible sites). The goal is to give researchers the most accurate list of active, unreliable news sources, as vetted by a professional ratings agency (meeting the criteria above).

What isn't in Iffy?

In the few cases MFBC and NewsGuard disagree, the site is not on the Iffy.news list. So a site is not included if MFBC rates it as mostly or highly factual (regardless of its NewsGuard score) or NewsGuard scores it 60 or higher (regardless of its MBFC rating). The index does not (yet) factor in MFBC's "mixed" factual rating or their "Questionable Sources" and "Conspiracy-Pseudoscience" site designations. The index does not consider political leanings.

Where does Iffy get its info?

Iffy.news data is pulled from the MFBC and NewsGuard APIs (permission pending). The ratings and lots of related data is in a public Google spreadsheet. The global Site Rank comes from Amazon's Alexa Web Information Service. AWIS and DomainBigData supply the Year Online (when the domain name was registered).

The Iffy index is in no way connected (but is inspired by) the Iffy Quotient at the University of Michigan. I, Barrett Golding, put Iffy.news together.

Corrections

To get a site listed or unlisted, submit it to the ratings agencies (whose data Iffy.news compiles) using the forms at Media Bias/Fact Check and NewsGuard. To inform me of corrections, use the form below. But remember: Our list includes only sites with stories that are demonstrably false — not merely biased or partisan. Include URLs of fact-checks demonstrating whether the site publishes fake or fact-based news.