About | Lead Stories
What we do
Lead Stories is an award-winning innovative fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. Our editorial team originally just used the technology provided by Trendolizerâ„¢ (patent granted) to quickly find the most trending content on the internet to write about but our mantra has always been "Just Because It's Trending Doesn't Mean It's True."
Originally started as a site about what was currently trending on the internet in general (and in some cases if it was actually true) we gradually shifted into full time fact checking ever since the primaries of the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. Nowadays we specifically hunt for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. We tend to work very fast because we actively monitor the fake news ecosystem and we don't have to wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story. You can read more about how we work here.
Since February 2019 we are an active part of Facebook's partnership with third party fact checkers. Under the terms of this partnership we get access to listings of content that has been flagged as potentially false by Facebook's systems or its users and we can decide independently if we want to fact check it or not. In addition to this we can enter our fact checks into a tool provided by Facebook and Facebook then uses our data to help slow down the spread of false information on its platform. Facebook pays us to perform this service for them but they have no say or influence over what we fact check or what our conclusions are, nor do they want to.
Since April 2020 we also provide fact checking related advice and services to ByteDance, the company running TikTok.
Who we are
- Chairman & co-founder: Perry R. Sanders
- Editor-in-Chief & co-founder: Alan Duke
- COO/CTO & co-founder: Maarten Schenk
- Chief Counsel: John C. Goede
- Assignments Manager: Steve Brusk
- Managing Editor: Dean Miller
- Senior Editor: Monte Plott
- Senior Editor: Leslie Lapides
- Claim Selection Supervisor: Dan Mac Guill
Writers & Fact Checkers
- Alexis Tereszcuk
- Ed Payne
- Evgenia Prodaeva
- Kaiyah Clarke
- Madison Dapcevich
- Marlo Lee
- Sarah Thompson
- Uliana Malashenko
Company Information
Lead Stories LLC is Colorado company formed by Maarten Schenk (Belgium), Alan Duke (California), Perry R. Sanders (Colorado) and later joined by John C. Goede (Florida). The company is self-funded with no outside investors and relies on advertising revenue, license fees for the use of the Trendolizerâ„¢ engine and fees obtained through Facebook's third party fact checking partnership and other fact checking related consultancy work.
You can check our entry in the Colorado Secretary of State business registry here (note: if the link doesn't work simply click your 'back' button and reload the page).
If you need to contact us our contact information can be found here.
Financial information about our fact checking operation
(As required by the IFCN Code of Principles to which we are a signatory)
2023
Here is an overview of our main funding sources for 2023, which were mostly the same as the year before.
- Meta Platforms Inc.
- ByteDance LLC
- Trendolizerâ„¢ subscriptions (see note)
- Google LLC
- MGID Inc.
- AdSupply Inc.
The bulk of our revenue originated from our work done for ByteDance related to TikTok and the work done as part of Meta's Third-Party Fact Checking Partnership.
2022
Here is an overview of our main funding sources for 2022, which were mostly the same as the year before.
- Meta Platforms Inc.
- ByteDance LLC
- Trendolizerâ„¢ subscriptions (see note)
- Repustar Inc.
- Google LLC
- MGID Inc.
- AdSupply Inc.
The bulk of our revenue originated from our work done as part of Meta's Third-Party Fact Checking Partnership and our work for ByteDance related to TikTok. We also had a small amount of revenue by supplying summaries of our fact checks for Repustar's FactSparrow project.
2021
Here is an overview of our main funding sources for 2021.
- Facebook LLC /Meta Platforms Inc. (Facebook was renamed to Meta in October of this year)
- ByteDance LLC
- Trendolizerâ„¢ subscriptions (see note)
- Repustar Inc.
- Google LLC
- MGID Inc.
- AdSupply Inc.
The bulk of our revenue originated from our work done as part of Facebook/Meta's Third-Party Fact Checking Partnership and our work for ByteDance related to TikTok. We also had a small amount of revenue by supplying summaries of our fact checks for Repustar's FactSparrow project.
2020
Here is an overview of our main funding sources for 2020, which are mostly the same as last year except for the addition of ByteDance LLC (for fact checking related work for TikTok) and a small IFCN grant:
- Facebook LLC
- Google LLC
- ByteDance LLC
- Trendolizerâ„¢ subscriptions (see note)
- MGID Inc.
- AdSupply Inc.
- A small IFCN grant for work done for the #CoronavirusFacts Alliance
The bulk of our revenue originated from our work done as part of Facebook's Third-Party Fact Checking Partnership.
2019
In the calendar year 2019 our expenses for running leadstories.com were as follows:
- Writing and technical staff: $299,849
- Hosting: $960
This was paid for with revenue from selling access to Trendolizerâ„¢ (see note) and advertising revenue from our sites mostly via Google LLC's Adsense ($17,314.28), but also MGID ($6,112.06) and AdSupply ($1,268.19). For privacy reasons we cannot reveal the list of Trendolizer users (see note) but none of them individually accounted for more than 5% of our revenue. We also received $359,000 from Facebook under the terms of the third party fact checking partnership.
2018
In the calendar year 2018 our expenses for running leadstories.com were as follows:
- Writing and technical staff: $91,920
- Hosting: $960
This was paid for with revenue from selling access to Trendolizerâ„¢ (see note) and advertising revenue from our sites. For privacy reasons we cannot reveal the list of Trendolizer users but none of them individually accounted for more than 5% of our revenue. We also received $102.000 from Facebook under the terms of the third party fact checking partnership. All revenue exceeding costs was used towards debt repayments.
Note about Trendolizer users and Editorial Independence
The Trendolizerâ„¢ Terms of Service have a clause we take very seriously that reads:
Usage of the Trendolizer Website or Service does not grant you any influence, say or preferential treatment with regards to the selection of the content we choose to write about, the content of the articles we publish or the rating or conclusions Lead Stories draws about any such content.
No individual Trendolizerâ„¢ user accounts for more than %0.15 of our average monthly company revenue. Most users are fact checking organizations and media companies.
About Us
Lead Stories is a fact checking website that is always looking for the latest false, misleading, deceptive or inaccurate stories, videos or images going viral on the internet.
Spotted something? Let us know!.
Lead Stories is a:
- Verified signatory of the IFCN Code of Principles
- Facebook Third-Party Fact-Checking Partner
- Member of the #CoronavirusFacts Alliance
@leadstories
Most Read
-
-
Fact Check: 'The Great Reset' Is NOT A Secret Plan Masterminded By Global Elites To Limit Freedoms And Push Radical Policies
Fact Check
-
Fact Check: 46 Out Of 50 States Did NOT Recount Their Votes And Find Biden Lost
Fact Check
-
Fact Check: Comedy Video Does NOT Show Man Actually Asking City Council To Legalize Sports Gambling After His Successful Betting On Transgender Athletes
Fact Check
-
Fact Check: Meme Listing Countries That Forbid Mail-In Voting Is NOT Fully Accurate -- Especially As To Citizens Living Abroad
Fact Check
-
Fact Check: Venus Williams Did NOT 'Refuse To Play Against A Trans Woman' -- Claim Is From A Satire Network
Fact Check
Most Recent
-
Fact Check: Japan Did NOT Declare Emergency Over 'Explosion Of mRNA Cancers'
Fact Check
-
Fact Check: Video Does NOT Show Biden 'Shaking Hands With A Ghost' -- He's Gesturing To Crowd
Fact Check
-
Fact Check: NO Evidence A Guantanamo Hospital Orderly Was Arrested For Trying To Murder Klaus Schwab
Fact Check
-
Fact Check: Eating Burnt Orange, Brown Sugar Does NOT Repair Sense Of Taste, Smell
Fact Check
-
Fact Check: Posts Warning Of Catalytic Converter Thieves Are NOT Authentic -- Part Of A Spamming Ruse
Fact Check
-
Fact Check: NO Evidence That Special Forces Freed 'Military and Civilian J6ers From Deep State Prison'
Fact Check
-
Fact Check: 46 Out Of 50 States Did NOT Recount Their Votes And Find Biden Lost
Fact Check