At FactCheckUSA.org, everyone from our full-time employees to freelancers and undergraduate student fellows adheres to a stringent nonpartisanship policy. This commitment goes beyond merely casting a vote and includes a range of specific guidelines:
- Engagement Restrictions: Staff must avoid activities that might appear biased. This means not participating in or working for political campaigns at any level, be it national, state, or local, nor engaging with political parties, campus political groups, or any organizations that, despite claiming neutrality, support particular political agendas or candidates.
- Political Items: There’s a strict policy against the display of any political materials, such as bumper stickers, yard signs, or similar equipment.
- Donations: Making political contributions is something that our team members are required to abstain from.
- Public Political Activities: We counsel our staff to steer clear of attending political gatherings (except journalistic assignments) and from expressing political views on social media platforms.
Work Emails: Communications sent from a FactCheckUSA.org email address must meet the same standards of unbiased and nonpartisan reporting as our published content.
Voting: Staff members have the freedom to vote according to their personal preferences.
Outside Employment and Freelancing:
At FactCheckUSA.org, our team must get a supervisor’s okay before taking any side jobs or freelance work. This is to make sure such work doesn’t go against our commitment to staying neutral and fair.
- Rules for Side Jobs: Doing freelance work on topics that aren’t about politics is usually fine. This is as long as the work isn’t for government bodies, groups that try to influence politics or any organization that is biased politically.
Everyone at FactCheckUSA.org must read, understand, and sign an agreement to follow our rules for staying neutral. If someone doesn’t follow these rules, we will take necessary actions.