Rumors, almost as ancient as human history, were aptly termed by French marketing professor Jean-Noël Kapferer as "the oldest mass medium in human history". With the rise and proliferation of the internet, rumor dissemination channels and reach have expanded significantly, becoming ubiquitous in contemporary society. Beyond the veracity of event content, diverse rumors contain substantial implicit information.
First, the emergence of rumors relates to human bounded rationality. Cass R. Sunstein, Director of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs under the Obama Administration, explains in his book Rumors that people's belief and propagation of rumors stem from three aspects: limited cognitive understanding of empirical facts, irrational emotional factors, and positional biases. Through analyzing rumor content domains and dissemination patterns, we can discern public knowledge distribution and identify fields where public interest exceeds their understanding of specialized knowledge or empirical facts.
Second, we can explore the cultural and social contexts underlying rumor generation, dissemination, and governance. Kapferer asserts in Rumors: The Oldest Media in the World that rumors essentially represent subjective value judgments by the public, serving as alternative narratives to official statements and reflecting forms of counter-power within existing social structures and authority systems. Philip A. Kuhn, Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, demonstrates in Soulstealers how the emergence, spread, and governance of "soulstealing" sorcery rumors revealed specific political and social contexts during the Qing Empire.
Third, in the information age, rumor propagation mechanisms constitute crucial aspects of media regulation and public opinion guidance. Particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic, authentic and transparent information has been vital for fostering public understanding of the epidemic, promoting scientific protection measures, and building societal confidence.
The CnOpenData team presents this rumor dataset, systematically compiling rumor-refuting information from the FactCheck platform. It contains rumor content/timestamps, debunking conclusions/timestamps, and verifier identities/affiliations, providing valuable data resources for rumor-related research.
Database Usage Guide
Original: Crawling FactCheck Platform Data
Original: Visual Analysis of FactCheck Platform Data
Temporal Coverage
Release Date Range: April 2006 - February 2020
Field Description
Sample Data
Update Frequency
Annual Updates