Our mistake: A post on artificial sweeteners we retracted

Amy O'Leary
Sun, 15 Mar 2015 19:50:46 +0000
Democracy, Health, Research, Science and technology, Culture, Media, Food

To the Upworthy c ommunity:

We messed up.

On Friday, March 13, we shared a post entitled, “Is there anything actually wrong with artificial sweeteners? Turns out, no." This post failed to meet our editorial standards and we regret publishing it.

While the post made references to several studies that were fact-checked a nd correct, the overall post lacked the necessary context to make such a broad claim. It also did not give proper consideration to conflicting scientific studies or experts. As a result, we are retracting the post.

At Upworthy, we take factual accuracy seriously and employ a team of editors and fact-checkers to review everything we publish. In this case, we fell short.

We appreciate the many members of our community who wrote to us, commented, and shared their concerns about this post.

Lastly, several people wrote to us to say they believed the piece was a paid-for advertisement from industry or a lobbying group. It was not.

While Upworthy sometimes works with companies and accepts payment to promote stories from other organizations, we're really selective about our partnerships, and we'll always be up front with you about them. The post about artificial sweeteners was one we wrote independently, and I take full responsibility for its content.

I would like to personally apologize for contributing to any confusion over this complicated issue. We are thoroughly reviewing our editorial processes to make sure that we don't make the same mistake again.

We believe in transparency, and while we've taken the post down, we have included a screenshot of the original post below for reference. We pledge to do better going forward.

Sincerely,

Amy O'Leary

Editorial Director

Upworthy