WebQoof Who We Are From reporting on the ground to using technology for verifying facts, we at The Quint try to incorporate more than one source of information to fact-check a claim. We also

rely heavily on data available in the public domain to conduct fact-checks. We also apply this principle for reporting in general, and try to verify facts even in our opinion pieces before

publishing. WebQoof has established itself as one of the leading disinformation busters in the industry. Launched in May 2017, it has built a dedicated audience who not only read our

stories, but also, and most importantly, bring to our attention disinformation for us to expose.

Through our work, we make sure to advocate for issues related to the mission of fact-checking by verifying the factual accuracy of the news we put out as well as counter misinformation and

falsehoods in the media and the public sphere.

We aim to ensure accountability by the state and public leaders, upholding values of a robust democracy by putting out verified, impartial information. If and when a factual error in our

fact-check is brought to our notice, we promptly rectify it when justified and mention any changes to the report at the bottom of the article.

The Quint has published a corrections policy and follows it diligently in accordance with the IFCN Code. Team WebQoof is also a member of India’s Misinformation Combat Alliance (MCA). Should

you feel that The Quint has violated the IFCN Code, you may inform the IFCN by clicking on the link here.

Similarly, if you find that The Quint has flouted the FCN’s Charter and Code of Principles, you may contact the FCN to inform them of the transgression.

Charter and Code of Principles: https://fcn.mcaindia.in/governing-charter Complaints: https://fcn.mcaindia.in/file-a-complaint

RAGHAV BAHL, CO-FOUNDER AND EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Raghav is a media entrepreneur and investor. In addition to founding and scaling Network18, India’s leading media group, Raghav has seeded

moneycontrol.com, bookmyshow.com, firstpost.com, and yatra.com, among others.

Raghav started making television news capsules while still reading Economics at St Stephen’s. After an MBA at FMS Delhi, Raghav's career followed an obvious trajectory, beginning as a

Management Consultant at AF Ferguson, followed by a stint at Amex. But news was a natural home for him, and he quit the cushy comforts of international banking and went on to set up

Network18, among India’s top media houses. Raghav has also managed long and successful partnerships with some of the world’s leading media brands: CNBC, Viacom, BBC, Star TV, A&E, Time

Warner, and Forbes.

As the audience is increasingly shifting out of television and into digital media, Raghav is now focused on scaling an innovative, digital media business — straddling content, tech, and

distribution. Raghav founded Quint Digital Media Limited in 2015, which has now been renamed Quint Digital Limited, in order to resonate better with the vision, strategy, and digital focus

of the Group.

Ritu is the Co-founder, CEO, and Managing Director of The Quint, an independent news website in India. She has driven digital innovation, from The Quint's innovation Lab to launching a

fact-checking initiative, WebQoof, which crowdsources and busts fake news.

Ritu has also strived to provide multiple platforms for free speech, like The Quint's citizen journalism initiative My Report, Talking Stalking — a campaign to change the laws to make

stalking a non-bailable offence, and Me, The Change — which focuses on the rights of young women in India.

Ritu spent over two decades in broadcast as the founder of Network18, where she won awards for a docudrama series _Bhanwar_ and for _The Citizen Journalist_ show, among others. At Network18,

she led programming on History TV18 and was Features Editor at CNN IBN, before she exited the company to launch The Quint.

She is on the advisory board of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN), Oxford University’s Reuters Institute of Journalism, and the World Editor's Forum at WAN IFRA. Senior

Editorial Team At the helm, we have some of the best minds in the industry who have honed their craft for years in the media, and today, lead a fearless newsroom. They work with reporters,

storytellers, editors, fact-checkers, video and audio producers, designers, product managers, and data analysts to ensure that we fulfil our commitment to fearless and transparent

journalism. Shelly Walia, Executive Editor, The Quint 

Shelly has been a journalist for more than 14 years — of which 10 have been spent in newsrooms at digital media companies. As the Executive Editor at The Quint, she closely interfaces with

editors and reporters to craft important, compelling stories, as well as with the marketing team to strategise and execute successful membership campaigns. In her previous stints, she has

worked at the American digital media company Quartz, initially out of New York and then from New Delhi, and at the financial daily, Business Standard, where she was awarded a special mention

in the 2013 Seema Nazareth Award. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, New York, in 2014. Shadab Moizee, Executive Editor, Quint Hindi Shadab has been a part of

the news media industry for over 8 years. He started his career in print media but has now embraced the new wave of digital media as an executive editor. He is a recipient of the prestigious

Ramnath Goenka Award. He hosts the political and current affairs series Janab Aise Kaise on The Quint and Quint Hindi, and has a keen interest in news features, documentaries, and satire,

working on topics as diverse as health, human rights, politics, and development. Vikas Kumar, Executive Editor, Quint Hindi With 13 years of experience in journalism, Vikas is currently

heading Quint Hindi. Vikas is experienced in all three forms of media — digital media, television, and newspaper — and has previously worked in Dainik Bhaskar, India News, Rajasthan Patrika,

and Asianet News. Aditya Menon, Editor, Politics Aditya has been a journalist for the last 13 years and has been part of diverse newsrooms like India Today, Rajasthan Patrika, and NDTV

before joining The Quint. His areas of focus are national and regional politics, communalism, and caste. Swati Chopra, Editor, Entertainment  Swati has been a journalist for over 17 years,

having worked at organisations such as DNA, CNN IBN, Times Now, and others before joining The Quint. An avid watcher of films and shows across genres, her love for cinema goes beyond the

screen and into understanding the intricacies of the world of entertainment. Swati interest also lies in telling feature stories through a gender lens. WebQoof Team Team WebQoof is an

independently functioning vertical at The Quint, with no interference from other editors or editorial teams. On rare occasions, Team WebQoof has published fact-checks which included errors

made by The Quint itself, debunking viral visuals. These erroneous stories were later updated in accordance with The Quint’s Corrections Policy.

Abhilash Mallick, Editor, Fact-Check Abhilash Mallick works as the Editor of the fact-checking team at The Quint. He enjoys working on investigative pieces to identify bad actors spreading

disinformation. Twitter: @Abhilash279 Email: [email protected] Aishwarya Varma, Assistant Editor Aishwarya works as a correspondent for WebQoof, The Quint's fact-checking

division. She enjoys covering mis/disinformation, debunking viral social media posts, and baking. Twitter: @AishwaryaVarma Email: [email protected] Rujuta Thete, Senior

Correspondent Rujuta's interest in digging into stories has secured her a place in the WebQoof team. Apart from work, she enjoys travelling, exploring new food and culture, and talking

about animals. Twitter: @RujutaThete Email: [email protected] Abhishek Anand, Senior Correspondent Abhishek is a part of the WebQoof team at The Quint. When he is not chasing stories

or reading up on politics and international relations, he can be found enjoying a game of volleyball or cricket. Twitter: @anandabhiwrites Email: [email protected] Khushi

Mehrotra, Correspondent Khushi is a multimedia journalist and storyteller. Her interests include covering politics and civic issues.  Twitter: @khushimehrotraa Email:

[email protected] Siddharth Sarathe, Principal Correspondent, Quint Hindi Fact-Check Team Siddharth has 3.5 years of experience as a fact checker. Apart from debunking political

fact-checks, Siddharth also enjoys uncovering conspiracy theories and large-scale misinformation-based narratives. Twitter: @siddharthsarat5 Email: [email protected]

Faizan is part of Quint Hindi's fact-check team. Apart from doing regular debunks, he also works on news stories on different issues through text articles and videos. Twitter:

@mojobyfaizan Email: [email protected]

Every fact-check written by The Quint undergoes a round of checking by at least one editor at the organisation who is not an author of that specific article.

Bureaus Apart from our reporters who travel across India to bring important ground reports, an array of freelance journalists enable us to identify local stories and fact-checks originating

from remote corners of the country. Though headquartered in Delhi NCR, The Quint's entertainment team is based out of Mumbai and works in tandem with the WebQoof team to ensure that

what reaches you is just verified news.

Reporters We have a team of reporters who specialise in investigative and multimedia ground reporting. Fact-checking from the ground is an important aspect of their work. Their beats range

from current affairs, legal, caste and communalism, and politics, to education, gender, and health. Our My Report team focuses on credible citizen journalism. Our FIT (health) team brings

compelling and informative health-related stories. This team also has a major focus on fact-checking and busting myths being circulated on health issues, treatments, and cures. CURRENT

AFFAIRS Aakriti Handa, Special Correspondent

Sakshat Chandok, Senior Correspondent, The Quint World Videos Team Our super cool team of video editors focuses on producing video explainers, stand-ups, news packages, concept videos,

fake-news debunking videos, and a lot more in long- and short-form formats. Zijah Sherwani, Creative Director Zijah Sherwani is a seasoned media professional with a decade of experience,

including over five years at The Quint. As a creative director and multimedia journalist, Zijah combines a journalistic eye with creative finesse to produce impactful video content. Her work

spans from in-depth documentaries to engaging social media features, covering a wide range of topics from political and social justice to cultural narratives. She leads The Quint's

videos team, collaborating with reporters and editors to push creative boundaries and experiment with formats and styles. In 2023, Zijah was honoured with a Red Ink Award in the Human Rights

category and was named a finalist in the SOPA Awards for Excellence in Journalistic Innovation. The Quint Lab and Graphics Team One of the cornerstones of The Quint is that we constantly

strive to find ways to make editorially important stories more engaging for our readers and viewers. The Quint Lab, our in-house department that focuses on innovations in journalistic

storytelling, leads the charge on this. From multimedia immersives to interactive data visualisations, from live infographics to interactive graphic novels, The Quint Lab does all of this

and more.  The cross-functional team comprises multimedia producers, a UI/UX designer, graphic designers, product managers, and a web developer. The Graphics team helms all graphic design

work at The Quint — creating illustrations, featured images, graphic novels, motion graphics, and animation. The team also makes custom creatives that shape The Quint’s visual identity on

the site and on social media platforms. 

Naman Shah, Senior Assistant Editor, The Quint Lab Social Media Team Our Social Media Team works across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Telegram, and other social

media platforms. The audience engagement specialists work round the clock, along with the WebQoof team, to identify fake news online. By the way, if your family WhatsApp group is buzzing

with those fake forwards, you can send it to our WebQoof team at +919540511818 and we will revert with fact-checked and credible content. Podcast Team The Quint’s podcasts are available to

be tuned in across 24 distribution platforms, including Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and Google Podcasts. Starting with just two shows — The Big Story and Urdunama — in 2017, The Quint’s

podcasters now have to their credit several scripted and unscripted podcasts on a range of topics, including books, movies, mental health, meditation — and even original stories of life,

love, and loss. Non-Partisanship Policy

As a part of the company policy, team members are not allowed to be directly or indirectly involved with any political party or candidate. Additionally, team members must not be involved

directly or indirectly in any kind of political activity like advocating or campaigning for any political party or candidate, or public expressions of their personal political preference

(like sticking banners in their houses, displaying political stickers or slogans on their vehicles, etc.).Furthermore, team members are prohibited from contesting or accepting any

appointment or association of whatsoever nature with any public office. We consistently and clearly state the organisational affiliations of the sources of information and the experts we

cite in our fact-checks. When including experts’ inputs, we verify the content of their statements with secondary sources to the best of our capabilities.

While Team WebQoof ensures that all data or information gathered is taken from the sources with the highest credibility, we ensure that there is no conflict of interest or bias in the

information collected. In case of any conflict or bias, The Quint actively works against citing that source as the only source of information, doing our best to gather knowledge from other

sources to corroborate the information received. Methodology The process of fact-checking ranges from ground reporting to calling various stakeholders and authorities to verify facts,

reverse searches, and analysing various parts of a message for a detailed response. We have sent our reporters on the ground many times to verify news stories, thus preventing misinformation

from spreading. One of the examples is the time of the Kathua rape case. Our reporter travelled to Kathua, Jammu and Kashmir to verify and bring out the facts. We also rely on personal

interaction with concerned parties to verify messages pertaining to them. For instance: For various messages about government schemes — when the details are not available on government

websites — we write/call the concerned ministry/department for clarification.

Since the messages that we receive range from text messages to videos, the way we handle them differs. Selection of Claims: We have a strict policy of non-partisanship. While selecting a

story for fact-checking:

* We assess the impact that fake post can have — is it likely to instigate violence? Can it harm anyone? What will be the implications if it goes viral? * We assess the kind of damage it can

do. In certain cases, posts can incite violence or can make an already sensitive situation worse, we prioritise based on the repercussions it can have. * We check the virality. In some

cases, the most innocuous posts, which are viral, can mislead/misinform people. * Misinformation is parallel to the news cycle, we also focus on breaking news events and news cycles to

ensure that we fact-check and debunk narratives and falsehoods around that. * We thoroughly assess the importance of the claim before publishing a fact-check and consider the number of

people a claim may have reached. In cases where a claim is not shared by more than a couple of users, we refrain from publishing a report in order to prevent platforming misinformation. * On

the other hand, if a claim makes seriously misleading, false, and/or potentially harmful statements, we choose to publish a fact-check report debunking it regardless of how many people may

have shared it due to the impact it may have.

For Images: Some images can be identified as having been tampered with by doing a simple Google reverse search. As the result shows similar images, they can be identified as being fake or

not. Secondly, a closer look at images helps in analysing certain aspects of the photo, which reveals details that help in checking the authenticity of the image. For instance, details in

images like billboards and location play a role in verification. For Videos: Verifying videos can be tricky but both the audio and the visuals play a role in verifying them. For instance, a

message was circulating on social media claiming that a raid was conducted on a _dhaba _near Delhi and the condition of the kitchen was extremely poor and unhygienic. But on watching the

video, we found it to be false. What helped us verify it was the audio. People in the video were talking in Punjabi, while the video was claimed to be from Haryana. Afterwards, using the

language as a clue, we found the same video online. It was not just from a different location but was also quite old. For Text: For text, we pursue cues and look for the information online,

then further analyse the source and verify the text bit by bit. There are different methodologies adopted for different stories, but we maintain a policy of not relying blindly on popular

sources of information until we are sure about the information that we put forward.

This is the link to our WebQoof section, where we stack all the stories that we debunk: https://www.thequint.com/news/webqoof. Who Owns The Quint? Quint Digital Limited (QDL) is a publicly

listed company with the Bombay Stock Exchange. The Quint’s founders, Raghav Bahl and Ritu Kapur, are the majority shareholders of the company, details of which can be found on the BSE’s

website. Here. The BSE’s shareholding information identifies its founders as ‘Promoter and Promoter Group’ and shows that they hold a 61.92 percent stake in the company as of December 2024.

Here.

Though the permitted/approved limits for foreign ownership is 26 percent, it did not exceed 11.78 percent in the quarter ending in December 2024. Here.

Some misconceptions about The Quint’s ownership have frequently circulated in the news and on social media. Our report here clarifies these misconceptions. Here. Staff Safety Due to the

potentially distressing nature of the work our staff does, The Quint has measures to address the risk of trauma and harassment that they may undergo. Apart from the in-house redressal

procedures mentioned in the Employee Handbook received by every member upon joining our teams, every member of the editorial team ensures that their team members are sufficiently equipped to

identify and mitigate distress to themselves.

In the event of a fact-checker being harassed for their work, The Quint guides the staff member to take necessary steps to mitigate its impact and provides paid mental health days off to all

staff members whenever they may need them.

With regard to Team WebQoof, the Editor oversees work assignments, ensuring that no team member is overly exposed to graphic, violent, or distressing content. All work is assigned with

appropriate trigger disclaimers, while keeping a free, two-way window for communication when a team member may want a claim to be reassigned if they feel distressed.

To ensure a safe work environment, The Quint addresses issues to minimise the harmful impacts of exposure to trauma on a case-to-case basis and aids its staff to attend events, trainings,

and conferences which help them find support systems among peers and help them equip themselves to address any future distress or trauma. Correction Policy Owning up to any error quickly and

completely, and being transparent when correcting a factual error — that’s our mantra. Therefore, as a professional organisation, while we endeavour to work with flawlessness and accuracy,

we are also mindful of the fact that mistakes need to be corrected promptly.  Corrections, clarifications, and retractions are to be noted online and printed in the next available issue, in

a regular, consistent space that is easy for the reader to find in the front of the publication or, in the case of a website, the home page. Serious factual errors are to be admitted and

corrected at the first opportunity, subject to legal advice where appropriate. No Team Member is allowed to commit the Company to an admission of error, correction, or apology without

reference to the Department Head. The Department Head along with the Company lawyers must be consulted about the wording of corrections and clarifications to determine their suitability.

We admit and correct any serious factual errors at the first opportunity, subject to legal advice where appropriate. Any amendment is notified at the bottom of an article. If a retraction is

needed, it is accompanied by an explanation as to why it was felt to be necessary, subject to the approval and discretion of the Editor-in-Chief and senior editors. Grievance See something

that seems off? You can reach out to our Grievance Officer, Nidhi Mahajan, at [email protected]. Editorial Code of Conduct As part of company policy and code of conduct, employees are

required to sign an undertaking that clearly states that they are not directly or indirectly involved with any political party or candidate. Team members must not be involved directly or

indirectly in any political activity, such as advocating or campaigning for any political party or candidate or public expressions of their personal political preference (like sticking

banners in their houses, displaying political stickers or slogans on their vehicles, etc.).

Team members are prohibited from contesting or accepting any appointment or association of whatsoever nature with any public office. Contact Us You can contact The Quint's

fact-checkers, Team WebQoof, at [email protected] or through our Facebook and Twitter pages. To send in claims for verification, the team can be contacted via email, social media, or

through the WhatsApp tipline on +91-9540511818. Have a suggestion or feedback on our stories or editorial projects? Write to us at [email protected]. Other ways to contact us are noted

here.