Prompts
Check a forwarded message in two minutes
Five checks you can run standing up on a phone, what would settle the question, and one sentence to send back to the person who forwarded it.
What may go into it: Public or invented material only
The prompt
Answer in [ANSWER LANGUAGE], even if the material below is in another language. I have a forwarded message and two minutes. I am standing up, on a phone. Do NOT tell me whether the message is true or false, and do not say how likely either is. Rules: 1. Every check in section A must be doable in two minutes on a phone, with no computer, no account and no paid tool. 2. Public sources only. Do not send me to a login or to a payment. 3. Do not judge the message. Do not add facts of your own about the event it describes. 4. Keep each check to one line. Order them by what rules the message out fastest. Give me, in this order: A. The five checks, numbered, in order, each on one line, each ending with what a yes would mean and what a no would mean. B. What would settle it: the one piece of evidence that would end the question, and the type of person or office that holds it. No names. C. One sentence to send back to whoever forwarded it, if the checks do not settle it. It must ask where the message came from, and must not call it false. D. What you cannot check here at all. The message: [PASTE THE FORWARDED MESSAGE]
Opens a new chat in that tool with this prompt already typed in. Fill in every box first, and read the line at the top about what may go into it.
10 minutes · Gives you a checklist · Works on a phone · How much to paste at once: Paste one message, and only the text of it. If the answer quotes a sentence you did not paste, or the message breaks in the middle of a word, send it again in two halves.
Read the answer against the checks below before you use it in anything that leaves your organisation.
What to fill in
- [ANSWER LANGUAGE]. Write Arabic, Kurdish or English, whichever the person who forwarded it reads.
- [PASTE THE FORWARDED MESSAGE]. Paste the text only. Leave out the phone number and the name of whoever sent it to you.
Before you trust the answer
- Section C goes to a person you know. Read it once for tone before you send it, because a sentence that sounds like an accusation ends the conversation.
- If the answer says the message is false, or true, or a scam, discard it. That was not the question.
- Do the five checks in order and stop at the one that settles it. Two minutes is the whole point.
When it goes wrong
It will answer the question you did not ask, calling the message a known rumour, and it will invent a detail about the event as if it had checked one.
Tools this is written for
Written 2026-09-01Nobody has run this prompt in this language yet, so read the answer twice.
- Never for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq
- Never for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq
- Never for sensitive materialHas a free versionWorks in Iraq
Where to go next
- The task this belongs toVerifying images, video and claims
- Staying safeClassify the material first
Written forHuman rights activistCommunications and campaigns