1. Sourcing
We attribute claims to primary sources wherever possible — platform announcements, SEC filings, on-the-record statements, and named interviews. When we rely on another outlet's reporting, we credit and link them in the first mention; we don't launder reporting through paraphrase.
Anonymous sources.We grant anonymity sparingly, and only when the source has meaningful personal risk and the information cannot be obtained otherwise. We tell the reader why the source is anonymous (“spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss internal meetings”), and we corroborate claims with a second source before publishing.
Leaked documents. We authenticate before we publish — we do not treat a screenshot as a document. Where the authenticity check is probabilistic rather than conclusive, we say so.
2. Verification and review
Every piece is edited by at least one editor who is not the author before it publishes. Time-sensitive breaking news moves through a shorter review, but the two-human rule still applies. The editor is credited in the story's metadata.
Before publication, we offer the subjects of a story — companies, platforms, or people — a real chance to respond to specific claims of fact, unless doing so would compromise a source or a legal process. We represent their responses fairly and in full; if they decline to comment, we say so.
3. Corrections
When we get something wrong, we fix it and we say so. Every correction is logged on our corrections page and on the affected article itself, with a note explaining what was wrong and what the accurate statement is.
We distinguish between:
- Typo fixes — silent, no log entry.
- Clarifications — the article was technically accurate but ambiguous; logged, with the original wording noted.
- Corrections — a fact was wrong; the change is logged and dated.
- Retractions — the central claim was unsupported or false; we leave the retraction notice up at the top of the article in place of the original, with the original body below for the historical record.
To request a correction, email corrections@howsociable.com. We aim to respond within 24 hours.
4. Conflicts of interest
We cover companies whose products some of us use daily — that can't be avoided in this beat. What we can avoid is undisclosed entanglement. When a reporter has a material stake in a story — equity in a company, a personal relationship with a named source, paid consulting for the industry — they disclose it or they step off the story.
No reporter or editor accepts cash, equity, paid travel, or hosted events from a company they cover, unless the cost is trivial (under $50) and the activity is itself the story (“what is the Meta Connect demo like?”). We pay for our own review units.
5. AI use
We use AI as a tool, not as a writer. Specifically:
- Allowed without disclosure:translating non-English sources, transcribing interviews, summarizing public filings for the reporter's reading, drafting headline options the editor then picks from.
- Allowed with disclosure in the piece: AI-assisted data analysis where the methodology is material; AI-generated illustrations labelled as such; AI-written summaries intended for a reader (we have not published these to date).
- Prohibited: publishing AI-generated text as reporting, quoting a source the AI fabricated, using AI to impersonate a human voice, generating imagery that could be mistaken for documentary photography.
If we ever discover we've slipped on this, we'll treat it as a correction — named, logged, and fixed — not as a style note.
6. Opinion and analysis
Opinion and analysis pieces are labelled with an Opinion or Analysis badge and styled differently from news reporting. An opinion writer may advocate for a position; a news reporter may not.
Sponsored content, when we publish it, is labelled Sponsored at the top of the article and is written by a separate commercial team. Newsroom staff have no input into sponsored pieces.
7. Reader privacy
We track pageviews to measure what's read. We do not sell reader data. Our privacy policy is the authoritative document on what we collect and why.
8. Appeals
If you believe we got something wrong and we decline to correct it, you can escalate to the editor in chief at editor@howsociable.com. We don't always agree, but we always respond.
Changelog. 19 April 2026 — initial version published alongside the newsroom launch.