In order to understand the current situation of rumor refutation platforms and explore new countermeasures for rumor refuting, the author takes Tencent News Comparison Platform “Real-Time Rumor Refuting for COVID-19” as the research object. Samples are taken from the publications of the platform in more than a month to analyze the numbers of the rumors verified, the source of information and its reliability, the verifiers under real names, and the differing data of verification results, etc.. It is concluded that there are several advantages in the performance of the platform, such as brevity and novel forms, highlighted credit of verification, subdivided verification results, rapid real-time rumor refuting, new mass media used, enhanced communication through multi-entrances, and so on. However, there still remain some problems, namely, the selection of verifiers needs to be improved, the verification results need to be further subdivided scientifically, the presentation of truths and rumors in proportion needs to be reasonably optimized, the communication function of verification articles needs to be enhanced, and the real-time rumor refuting library needs to be developed. It is concluded that rumor refuting mechanism should be developed by active use of big data technology, by establishment of multi-party alliances, and by market-oriented operations.

rumor refuting  /  verification  /  science communication  /  COVID-19