How we rate
We do not grade truth with a number and we do not let AI decide what is true. We show who says it, from which camp, how many independent source families reported it, and who denied it.
No score, no AI verdict
Every article carries only what can be read from the database without guessing: the source family, how many independent source families reported it within 24 hours, whether a party that would know confirmed it, whether the original post was deleted, and whether we retracted it. No language model takes part in any of these decisions.
Source families
Assigning an account to a family is an editorial decision. The full list is published here so you can disagree with it. Accounts outside this list have no family and never count toward a stamp.
Regime media
State and IRGC-aligned outlets. The party that knows what happens inside Iran — and the party with the strongest reason to lie about it.
irna.ir · isna.ir · tasnimnews.com · mehrnews.com · farsnews.ir · presstv.ir · irib.ir
No accounts of this family are in the database yet.
Diaspora & activists
Exile media and activists. One family on purpose: Iran International, Iran News Agency and Manoto repeat each other within minutes — a retweet chain, not independent confirmation.
iranintl.com · iranwire.com · manototv.com · hra-news.org
International media
International broadcasters and wire agencies. Radio Farda is US-funded; it stays here, and we say so openly.
reuters.com · apnews.com · france24.com · afp.com · bbc.com · bbc.co.uk · dw.com · radiofarda.com · voanews.com
OSINT
Open-source analysts. Fast and often right, but their only sources are other posts.
US-Israel official
A party to the conflict. Counts toward Multiple sources, never alone toward Confirmed — the same threshold as on the Eliminated page.
centcom.mil · defense.gov · idf.il · whitehouse.gov
The rules, word for word
At least two different source families reported the same story, and the second family came no more than 24 hours after the first. Quotes of another account and denials do not count. This is not a confirmation: two families from the same camp (for example OSINT and CENTCOM) only show that the story travelled.
One of two things happened: (a) a regime outlet and a source from another family both reported it and nobody denied it; (b) an editor pasted a link to an official statement from the regime or from US-Israel officials. The stamp is never set by software alone and never removed by software.
Only by hand, by an editor, with a link to the evidence and a reason: the author withdrew the story, it was contradicted with evidence, or an editorial decision. A retraction cannot be edited or removed afterwards; only a super-admin can undo it, and that is logged. Retracted stories leave the homepage and the ticker but stay in the archive with the retraction on top.
Facts shown next to a stamp
24 to 72 hours after publication we check whether the original post still exists. A deleted post does not mean the story was false; accounts get suspended and posts get deleted for many reasons.
A named source has denied the story. A denial is a fact we show, not a verdict we give; a regime denial of an opposition report is not a retraction.
What Single source means
Most stories carry no stamp at all. Single source means exactly that: one account or one family reported it and nobody we track has independently repeated, confirmed or denied it. It does not mean false, and it does not mean true. On the article page we list what is missing — the regime's position, an official statement, an international agency — and what would change the stamp.
Register of retractions
Every story we retracted, newest first. Each entry links to the evidence.
No retractions so far.
What we did before
Until 24 April 2026 an automated language-model score flagged 825 posts as fake news and hid them. We withdrew it: the score was not evidence, and most flagged posts were ordinary reports. The flagged posts are being reviewed and restored with a note; the few that were genuinely false become the first entries of the register above.
Report a retraction
Know that a story here was withdrawn or contradicted? Send the link and the evidence to:
[email protected]