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Seven Questions Before You Share: Printable Checklist

What you will be able to do: Run a consistent seven-question check at the moment of sharing rather than after the fact.

Published
Updated
By
ARAC International
Reading time
3 minutes
Level
Introductory
Time required
30 seconds per item
Version
1.0
Reviewed
Format
Web page with print styles

To use this on paper, print this page from your browser. The site header, navigation, and footer are removed automatically from the printed output. Downloadable PDF and DOCX versions are not published yet. The process for adding them is documented for site maintainers in CONTENT_GUIDE.md.

How to use this

Print this page, or keep the tab open. Run the seven questions on anything you are about to forward, quote, or repeat. Most items clear in under thirty seconds. The ones that do not are the ones worth the extra minute.

Use it before you share, not after. A check performed afterwards is a correction, and corrections reach fewer people than the original.

The checklist

  • What exactly does this claim? Say it in one sentence. If you cannot, do not pass it on.
  • Who produced it, and how do I know? Not the account that posted it. The origin.
  • When did this happen? Undated content is a common way for old material to look current.
  • What evidence is actually shown? Separate what is documented from what is asserted around it.
  • What is this designed to make me feel? Name the intended reaction. Strong feeling is not proof of falsehood, and it is a reason to slow down.
  • What would I expect to see if this were true, and do I see it? Missing corroboration is information.
  • What happens if I am wrong? Raise your standard in proportion to the consequences.

If an item fails

You have three options, and only one of them is “do not share”.

  1. Ask the sender where it came from. This is a question, not an accusation, and it works better than a correction.
  2. Share the original instead. If the underlying report is real, link it rather than the repackaged version.
  3. Say what you do not know. “I saw this too and could not find the source” is a useful contribution.

For facilitators

This checklist is designed to be handed out at the end of a session rather than the start. Participants who have already worked through examples read it as a summary of something they did, which is easier to retain than a list encountered cold.

Printing note: this page uses a print stylesheet. Navigation, the site header, and the footer are omitted from the printed output.

Version and reuse

Version 1.0, reviewed August 2026. Reuse terms for THINK materials are described on the Terms of Use page.

Next step

Read the lesson behind this checklist

Media LiteracyInformation Manipulation

  • Lesson

    How Images Lose Their Original Context

    Recontextualized photographs mislead more often than manipulated ones. Here is how it happens and how to trace an image back to its origin.

    8 minIntroductory

  • Think Lab

    Spot the Missing Context

    Practice identifying the specific missing piece that makes a statistic or a quotation uninterpretable.

    7 minIntroductory

  • Lesson

    Seven Questions to Ask Before You Share

    A thirty-second checklist that catches most of the content people later regret passing along, without requiring you to become a fact checker.

    7 minIntroductory

How this page is produced

Published by ARAC International under theTHINK editorial standards. If you find an error, please tell us through the corrections page.