You will be able to check a claim by finding out what other sources say, rather than studying the page itself.
Hafiz, from lesson 6.1, gets a link in his family group to an article on a site called something like "Singapore Health Daily". The site looks professional. There's a logo, a clean design, an author photo, and a list of references at the bottom. The article claims a common cooking oil sold in local supermarkets has been linked to kidney damage. His instinct is to read it carefully and judge whether it seems credible.
That instinct is the problem. A well-made fake is designed to pass exactly that kind of close reading. This lesson teaches a faster and more reliable method: leave the page and find out what others say about it.
Lateral reading means checking a source by opening new tabs and looking at what other sources say about it, rather than studying the source itself. The name comes from research into how professional fact-checkers work. Instead of reading down the page, they read across the web.
In practice, before reading the article closely, Hafiz opens a new tab and searches for two things. First, the site's name: "Singapore Health Daily". Who runs it? Do established news outlets or official bodies mention it? Is there any information about who owns it? Second, the claim itself: "cooking oil kidney damage Singapore". Has anyone else reported it?
In under two minutes he learns that the site has no listed owner, no physical address, and no mentions anywhere credible. Searching the claim turns up nothing from the Health Sciences Authority, the Singapore Food Agency or any major news outlet. That's already enough to treat the article as unreliable.
He never had to work out whether the article's medical reasoning made sense. He let the rest of the web answer the question for him.
Many claims are built on something real, distorted along the way. So when a claim cites a study, a statement or a video, go looking for the original.
If an article says "a study found", search for the study itself: its title, authors, and where it was published. Read at least the summary. Often the real study is about something narrower, such as rats rather than people, or very high doses rather than normal cooking. Sometimes the study doesn't exist at all, which is common when an AI tool helped write the article, as lesson 6.1 explained.
If a post quotes an official statement, find it on the agency's own website or official social media. If it shares a video clip, look for the full video. A ten-second clip can make someone appear to say the opposite of what they meant.
Be suspicious of screenshots. A screenshot of a news headline, an official letter or a tweet is easy to fake and impossible to click through, so go and find the real page it claims to show.
Not every source is equally reliable, and you won't have time to check everything twice. Prefer sources with two features: named authors who take responsibility for what they write, and a correction policy that says how they fix mistakes.
Established news outlets and official government sites usually have both. They still make mistakes, but they fix them openly. An anonymous site with no correction policy has nothing to lose by being wrong. For health claims in Singapore, check the Ministry of Health and the Health Sciences Authority, for financial claims check MAS, and for government announcements use the relevant ministry's own website or gov.sg.
Here's a useful rule for dramatic claims. If something really big were true, such as a supermarket chain closing, a food product being recalled, or a new government rule, established news outlets and official sources would be reporting it. If nobody credible is, treat the claim as unconfirmed.
Unconfirmed isn't the same as false. It means you don't know yet, and you shouldn't pass it on as if you did. Hafiz has started replying to dramatic forwards with something like: "I searched and couldn't find this on any news site or official page. Does anyone have the original source?" It's polite, it doesn't call anyone a liar, and it often stops the forward chain.
Lateral reading feels odd at first, because it seems lazy not to read the article properly. But it's faster and more reliable, and it works on claims in any subject, even ones you know nothing about. Next time a dramatic claim lands in one of your groups, try it before you read past the headline, and keep track of every tab you open.
Check one viral claim using lateral reading and write which sources you opened and whether each supported the claim.
Junxiong-WFG Organisation is an authorised representative of AIA Financial Advisers Private Limited (Reg. No. 201715016G).