Primary does not mean infallible.
A primary source is closest to the event, record, statement, or data being evaluated. Court filings, sworn testimony, official reports, original datasets, authenticated records, and original public posts can all be primary sources for different questions. Their accuracy and limits still have to be assessed.
Secondary reporting can be strong—but trace it.
News reporting, professional analysis, and academic commentary may be highly useful. When the classification depends on a factual assertion that the article attributes to a filing, transcript, study, dataset, or named source, the audit tries to reach that upstream material.
Ten articles repeating one article are not ten independent sources. Ten creators repeating one creator are not ten independent sources.
The screenshot rule.
A screenshot can be direct evidence that a public statement was displayed if the account, platform, timing, context, and authenticity can be established. But a screenshot of text from a news story, court document, study, email, or other source does not automatically prove the underlying factual claim.
Questions a screenshot has to survive
- What publication, document, account, or system produced the text?
- Where is the original URL or stable locator?
- Who authored or issued it?
- When was it published?
- Is the capture complete or cropped?
- What comes immediately before and after the passage?
- Does the source cite another source?
- Can that next source be inspected?
Social-media posts are publications, not automatic proof.
When a public post is relevant, the audit records the platform, public handle, direct URL, date/time when available, the necessary transcript or description, whether it is original or reposted, and any external source the creator claims to rely on.
Likes, views, shares, followers, comments, and stitches describe reach. They do not increase the truth value of the claim.
Future evidence submissions require provenance.
When public submissions open, a person will need to identify the claim, source type, direct URL or reason none exists, author or issuing body, date, whether they possess an original or only a screenshot/copy, where the material was found, and any upstream source it cites.
Submitting something will not mean Facts or Fallacies accepts it as authentic, relevant, credible, or true.
Private preservation is not public republication.
A lawful internal copy of public material may be preserved for provenance or correction history without mirroring the entire copyrighted work on the public website. The public audit should prefer the original link, a factual transcript or description, and only the excerpts needed to explain the finding.