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🔎 Verifying Claims on Social Media
Social media allows anyone to post claims, whether substantiated or not. Your job as a critical historian is to verify claims before accepting them as fact. When you see a historical claim on social media, you need to ask: "What do other sources say?"
- Read laterally about the source (if possible) — Find out who is behind the post and whether they are trustworthy
- Verify the claim itself — Open a new tab and do a keyword search to see what trusted sources say about the specific claim
Even if you can't establish that a source is trustworthy through lateral reading, the claim it makes might still be worth investigating. By doing a keyword search for what trusted sources say about the claim, you can determine if it's accurate.
1 Claim 1: The WIC Program
Claim: The WIC program (Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children) was originally created by the Black Panther Party.
Your task: Verify this claim by reading laterally about the source and then searching for what trusted sources say about whether the Black Panther Party created the WIC program.
2 Claim 2: Playground Safety in 1900
Claim: A social media account posts a photograph from 1900 showing a child appearing to fall from playground equipment, with the caption suggesting playground safety was worse in the past.
Your task: Verify this claim by investigating the photograph. Where did it really come from? What does the original source say about what's happening in the image?