How We Verify
Our four-tier source verification system
1. How We Verify
SLUG: how-we-verify
PLATFORM
How SourceRated Verifies Every Story
SourceRated uses a four-step AI verification pipeline that runs automatically on every article published to this platform. No story goes live without passing through this process.
Step 1 — Source Detection
Our AI crawlers monitor RSS feeds from 24 globally recognised news outlets every 20 minutes. When a new story is detected, it is immediately logged with its source, headline, publication timestamp, and content snippet.
Step 2 — Cross-Reference Check
The AI searches all other monitored sources for the same story. It identifies matching stories based on headline similarity, named entities (people, places, organisations), and event descriptions. The number of independent sources reporting the same event is the primary input into the credibility score.
Step 3 — Credibility Scoring
Based on the source cross-reference, each article is assigned a credibility score from 0 to 100. The scoring table below shows exactly how scores are calculated:
| Sources corroborating | Score range | Label |
|---|---|---|
| 5 or more independent sources | 90–100% | Very High Credibility |
| 3–4 independent sources | 70–89% | High Credibility |
| 2 independent sources | 50–69% | Moderate |
| 1 source only | 20–49% | Unverified |
| Contradicted by other sources | 0–19% | Disputed |
Step 4 — Community Verification
Every article includes a community voting widget where readers can vote TRUE, UNSURE, or FALSE. This crowd-sourced signal is displayed alongside the AI score as a second independent trust indicator. The two signals together — AI credibility score and community verdict — give readers the most complete picture of a story’s reliability available on any news platform.
What We Do Not Do
- We do not editorially decide which stories are true or false
- We do not remove stories because they are controversial
- We do not accept payment to influence credibility scores
- We do not reproduce full copyrighted articles — all content is AI-summarised from public sources