Welcome to the internet Bad Statements Detector!

This page helps you check information you find on the internet. It's meant to help people stop passing along things on the internet that aren't true. If you check things with the BS Detector before you post them on Facebook, your friends might thank you for it. (Note, 2023: I make no promises about people on Twitter.)

Instructions:

1. First, test it out. Here are some sample phrases you might see on a web page. Select one of these phrases by just clicking your mouse down on it and dragging over it to select it.

Swimming after you eat Poison in green tomatoes Hillary Clinton is dead Donald Trump groped RuPaul UFO crash in Roswell, NM Dial 112 in an emergency Vaccines cause autism Bill Gates pays you $5000 to forward an email the illuminati NaturalNews.com Energy healing Health tips from Sheryl Crow GMO foods are unhealthy 2. Then click the "Detect BS" button, and the Bad Statements Detector will show you links to factual information about what you've selected, found on many of the internet's most reputable fact-checking and research-oriented websites.

(If you click the "Detect BS" link without selecting an above phrase first, it will ask you to type something in by hand.)

3. (Optional) Then, grab a copy of the BS Detector for yourself to use anywhere on the web: After you see how this works, you can drag the above "Detect BS" button right into your web browser's bookmarks bar so you always have it available. Then, you can use your mouse to select words on any web page, and immediately click the "Detect BS" link right in your bookmark bar to check out if what you selected is BS. If you do this before you share things on Facebook, your friends might thank you!

FIREFOX ONLY: Install the BS Detector OpenSearch plugin to add the BS Detector as an option in your Firefox search box.

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The following references for have been found on sites that debunk internet myths, hoaxes, urban legends, and other BS:

Note: you have to actually click through and read the articles, not just these headlines. Some fact-checking sites state myths in the headlines, and then debunk them in the articles. Just because the headline says it, that doesn't mean the article is saying it's true!