Fact Checking: Task definition and dataset construction

In this paper we introduce the task of fact checking, i.e. the assessment of the truth-fulness of a claim. The task is commonly performed manually by journalists verify-ing the claims made by public figures. Fur-thermore, ordinary citizens need to assess the truthfulness of the increasing volume of statements they consume. Thus, de-veloping fact checking systems is likely to be of use to various members of soci-ety. We first define the task and detail the construction of a publicly available dataset using statements fact-checked by journal-ists available online. Then, we discuss baseline approaches for the task and the challenges that need to be addressed. Fi-nally, we discuss how fact checking relates to mainstream natural language processing tasks and can stimulate further research. 1