Comparing Automated Factual Claim Detection Against Judgments of Journalism Organizations

In this research, we deployed an automated fact-checking system (ClaimBuster) on the 2016 presidential primary debates and assessed its performance compared to professional news organizations. In real-time, ClaimBuster scored the statements made by candidates on check-worthiness, the likelihood that the statement contained an important factual claim. Its discrimination compared to professional journalists was high. Statements chosen for fact checking by CNN and PolitiFact had been scored much higher by ClaimBuster than those not selected. The topics of statements chosen for checking also mirrored the topics of those scored highly by ClaimBuster. Differences between the political parties and individual candidates on the use of factual claims are also presented.