Editorial policy

This policy sets out the rules every story on Most Viral Today is held to. It applies to staff, freelance contributors and every tool we use, including AI.

1. Sourcing standards

• We go back to the original source wherever we can: the person who filmed a clip, the account that first posted it, the organisation involved, or the official record.
• We say where information comes from. If a detail comes from the creator’s own description, a news agency or another publication, the story attributes it.
• We do not report a claim as fact when we have only seen it repeated on social media. If it cannot be confirmed we either leave it out or say plainly that it is unconfirmed.
• We do not invent quotes, people, places or numbers, and we do not change the meaning of what someone said.

2. Verification

Before a story about a clip or picture is published, an editor checks:

• that we have permission to use it, and who should be credited
• where and when it was recorded, as far as the creator, the licensing record or other evidence allows
• that the footage has not been mislabelled, re-dated or presented as something it is not
• that the headline and the first lines of the story match what the footage actually shows

When a location or date cannot be established we say so in the story rather than guess.

3. Video and material from the public

Much of what we publish was filmed by members of the public. For every piece of it:

• Permission comes first. We use a clip only when we have a clear basis to do so: a licence from the person who filmed it, a licence through an agency that represents them, written permission, or a native embed provided by the platform it was posted on. A story cannot be published while that basis is missing.
• The creator is credited. The person or account that made the material is named on the story, with a link to the original where they are happy for us to link.
• Embeds are preferred. Where a platform offers an embed, we use it instead of copying the file, because an embed keeps the creator’s attribution and their control over the post.
• People in the footage are treated fairly. We think about whether showing someone’s face, name or location is justified, and take particular care with children, people in distress and anyone who did not choose to be filmed.
• Creators can ask us to change or remove their material. Use the rights route on our contact page.

4. Pictures

Picture stories and article images come from sources we hold rights for: images licensed to us, photo agency pictures, public domain archives, images supplied with permission, and images we produced ourselves. Archive pictures are used as archive pictures and are not presented as new.

5. How we use AI

• Drafting help. We use AI tools to gather background, suggest outlines, write first drafts of captions and articles, and check copy against our style rules.
• A person is responsible for every word. An editor reads, edits and fact-checks every AI-assisted draft. No story is published automatically. Approving a story for publication is always a human decision.
• AI images are labelled. Some illustrations are generated or edited with AI. Each one carries a visible label on the image, either “AI-generated image” or “AI-edited image”.
• No fakes presented as real. We do not present an AI-generated or AI-altered image as a photograph of a real event, and we do not use AI to alter what licensed footage shows.

6. Headlines

A headline is a promise, and the article has to keep it.

• Everything a headline states must be stated in the story, near the top.
• A number in a headline must appear in the story.
• A question in a headline must be answered in the story.
• We do not write headlines that hold back the point to make you click, such as “you won’t believe what happened next”.

Our publishing system checks headlines against these rules before a story can go live.

7. Affiliate links and partners

• Some stories contain affiliate links. If you buy through one we may earn a commission. Any story with affiliate links says so at the top of the article, and those links are marked for search engines as paid links.
• A story paid for by a partner, made in partnership with one, or about a product we were given free is labelled as such at the top of the article.
• Partners and advertisers do not decide what we cover or what our stories say.

8. Bylines, dates and corrections

• Where a story carries a writer’s name, it links to their author page.
• Every story shows when it was published. An “Updated” date appears only when the story has changed in substance, never for a typo fix.
• Mistakes are corrected openly with a dated note on the story. See our corrections policy.