PolitiFact’s social media code of conduct

At PolitiFact, we approach all of our social platforms with the same goal: to encourage discussion, curiosity, and greater understanding of the information people need to govern themselves in a democracy. We believe one way to do this is through community on social platforms.

We believe in transparency, welcome criticism and appreciate when our journalism sparks debate and discussion. We welcome your comments on our posts across platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok and Reddit. To keep comments civil, thoughtful and useful, we ask that you follow our community guidelines and our moderation policy when you post. 

We will not tolerate bigotry or harassment of any kind on our posts. Violation of these commenting guidelines can get your comments hidden and/or your account banned from future posting:

• Personal attacks 

• Threats of violence

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• Discriminatory language

• Harassment 

• Spam or promotional posts

We aim for PolitiFact’s fact-checking work and social presences to be useful for people from all backgrounds. Following these guidelines will allow this to occur.

What do we recommend? Join in discussions, and build on top of ideas. If you think someone has made a great point, like that person’s comment and say so. It’s easy for conversations online to turn into a sounding board where readers simply post their stances on an issue, but the best discussions come from responding and contributing to what others have already shared. 

We value the replies you leave on PolitiFact posts, including links to claims that lead us to new fact-checks. When this happens, we share our new fact-check with the reader to show their suggestion’s impact. Reader-suggested fact-checking makes our work stronger, and we welcome recommendations and feedback. 

PolitiFact has partnerships with social platforms to help try and slow the spread of misinformation online. We retain full editorial control of our work. Here is some more information about our partnerships with Facebook and TikTok.