Fact-checking mechanisms such as PolitiFact and Snopes have increased in the last 20 years.

Judge as of 2018-02-13, comparing about 1998 with 2018. True: the number of fact-checking organizations or outlets (e.g., Snopes, founded 1994; FactCheck.org, 2003; PolitiFact, 2007; plus later international outlets) clearly grew over those 20 years. Mostly true: there was growth, but some details are slightly off, such as the timing. Mixed: growth occurred in some places or kinds of fact-checking but not others, in roughly equal measure. Mostly false: growth was marginal or limited to a very narrow segment. False: the number of fact-checking mechanisms did not increase, or fell.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 International fact-checking gains ground, Duke census finds - Reporters' Lab Duke Reporters' Lab (DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy, Duke University) · 28 February 2017

   “The number of active fact-checking projects increased more than two and half times since the Duke Reporters’ Lab began its annual census three years ago.”

2. E2 International fact-checking gains ground, Duke census finds - Reporters' Lab Duke Reporters' Lab (DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy, Duke University) · 28 February 2017

   “But with the shuttering of eight of PolitiFact’s state affiliates since the election and other updates to our list, the U.S. year-over-year count grew by just two to 43”

3. E3 David & Barbara Mikkelson Found Urban Legends Reference Pages, One of the First Online Fact-Checking Websites History of Information · 24 October 2026

   “In 1994 David and Barbara Mikkelson created Urban Legends Reference Pages, an urban folklore website that was later renamed Snopes.com.”

4. E4 Fact-checking triples over four years - Reporters' Lab Duke Reporters' Lab (DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy, Duke University) · 22 February 2018

   “The number of fact-checkers around the world has more than tripled over the past four years, increasing from 44 to 149 since the Duke Reporters’ Lab first began counting these projects in 2014 — a 239 percent increase.”

The Duke Reporters' Lab census found that the number of fact-checking projects worldwide more than tripled, from 44 in 2014 to 149 in early 2018 (E4, consistent with E1). Snopes, started in 1994, is described as one of the first online fact-checking websites (E3), so few such outlets existed around 1998. E2 notes that U.S. growth was small in the latest year because several PolitiFact state affiliates closed. That does not change the clear overall growth over the 20 years.