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in General Factchecking by Newbie (280 points)
According to scopes.com and places like Tik Tok, there have been theories about secret tunnels under Sean Diddy Combs house. Some claims saying they lead to the playboy mansion others, to Michel Jacksons house.
by Newbie (330 points)
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TikTok is not a reliable source for news for several reasons. The platform designed for short, entertaining videos rather than in-depth reporting. Unlike established news organizations, TikTok lacks the editorial standards and professional oversight necessary to ensure the credibility of its content. The app's algorithm prioritizes engagement over accuracy, potentially causing users to share misleading content without verifying its precision.

3 Answers

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by Novice (560 points)

This peer reviewed source by Misinformation Review titled "'Fact-checking' fact checkers: a data-driven approach" indicates that Snopes.com is not a verified reliable source. This article states, "Critically, we assessed the degree of consensus between Snopes and PolitiFact’s verdicts on matching claims (i.e., the same [mis]information with the wording of the claim being slightly different). Out of 11,639 and 10,710 fact-checking articles from Snopes and PolitiFact, respectively, 6.5% (749) were matching claims, of which 521 (69.6%) received identical ratings, while the remaining 228 (30.4%) had diverging ratings." According to this quote, the facts often do not match the claims made on the Snopes website. Additionally, the author of this article, Nur Ibrahim, is a real author but is known to focus on speculative and literary fiction according to the Lighthouse Writer's Workshop: "she writes speculative and literary fiction." This article is based on speculations made by people primarily on X who hold no legitimacy concerning the Sean Combs case. The article admits that there is no real evidence that there is even a tunnel underneath the Diddy mansion or that it leads to the infamous Playboy Mansion or Michael Jackson's house. Finally, Vice Magazine says that the theory has been debunked: "While Combs is in jail awaiting trial for alleged sex trafficking, stories circulated on social media accusing the rapper of having secret underground tunnels under his home, with some leading to the Playboy Mansion or Michael Jackson’s house. The theory has been debunked." The conclusion is that this is a highly exaggerated story that has no real basis.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/diddy-tunnels-debunked/#:~:text=While%20Combs%20is%20in%20jail,The%20theory%20has%20been%20debunked. 

False
by Apprentice (1.3k points)
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Did you check any of the sources posted by vice?
by Apprentice (1.4k points)
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I love your use of data as evidence against the Snopes article as it says at the top it is peer reviewed. This clarifies—a lot for me. I liked how you used multiple sources to prove your point and I will be using Misinformation Review as a news source in the future.
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by Novice (730 points)
Snopes and TikTok are not reliable sources. MSN has confirmed that photos of a fake CNN article spreading on TikTok were altered and do not provide any substancial evidence that Diddy's house had underground tunnels connecting to either the Playboy mansion or Michael Jackson's house.
by Apprentice (1.4k points)
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Could you elaborate on why TikTok is not a reliable source in this specific context? From certain users, information spread on TikTok could be accurate, so saying all of TikTok is not a reliable source is a blanket statement that could use some tweaking. Maybe instead mention how rumors of Combs spread mainly though TikTok. By being more specific, it will make your response seem more professional.
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by Apprentice (1.4k points)
Snopes is not a reliable source of news for several reasons. When looking through the article and clicking on the first source, it links to a news article from Reuters that does not mention underground tunnels. Furthermore, the main source of this claim in the Snopes article is an 'X,' formally known as a Twitter comment posted by user 'ShadowofEzra.' Looking through the previous posts on this profile, it appears that the posts are merely attention-grabbing article titles with no evidence so it is safe to assume this post was the same. When looking up the claims posted by Snopes, several articles including ones from VICE blatantly state that these claims are rumors generated by the public. These rumors started as Sean Combs' pool has a water tunnel feature, that leads to another pool.

https://www.vice.com/en/article/diddy-tunnels-debunked/#:~:text=While%20Combs%20is%20in%20jail,The%20theory%20has%20been%20debunked.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/sean-diddy-combs-properties-la-miami-raided-by-federal-agents-2024-03-25/

https://x.com/ShadowofEzra
by Newbie (300 points)
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Hi Connor_Jaffe, I think you did an excellent job on this fact check and were extremely thorough with checking the sources and finding if they were reliable or not. I appreciated that you not only described this article as untrue but you also added sources that point to the real story.

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