Repustar Launches FactSparrow Tipline, a Misinformation Alert Platform for Fact-Checkers and Journalists

Repustar, a benefit corporation that builds tools to combat misinformation, has released a new community product to help fact-checkers and journalists engage and enlist their readers in support of facts.

FactSparrow Tipline invites consumers on social media to alert fact-checkers when they encounter misinformation circulating online, and enables these organizations to quickly respond. This product builds on the technology and success of the FactSparrow Twitter AI bot, which creates a new experience for users asking for facts in their social media conversations.

“Journalism outlets are recognizing that in order to reach readers today, simply publishing high quality content is not enough and that they need to be actively responsive to unsupported claims online and serve people in their moment of need,” said Chandran Sankaran, Repustar’s founder and CEO. “FactSparrow Tipline helps them do just that by inviting questions from the general public, and providing a smart and immediate resource for them. It sets a foundation for credible news sources to build a richer relationship with their readers and meaningfully compete with the flood of baseless claims online.”

FactSparrow Tipline tackles a set of problems faced by fact-checkers and journalists when they attempt to source tips from their readers, and it moves the job of reader engagement from a bespoke, time-intensive task to a data science-driven, scalable process:

• Screening for abuse: Detractors of fact-checking and reporting often use traditional tip collection forms as avenues to troll and insult these outlets. FactSparrow Tipline employs AI-based intent detection capabilities to screen out and discourage abuse.
• Instantaneous responses: Oftentimes claims that are circulating on social media have already been fact-checked—they just aren’t easily discoverable to readers. FactSparrow Tipline uses a proprietary search and match algorithm to instantly scan the pool of published fact-checks and news to see if a claim has already been addressed.
• Ongoing engagement: As new content is written, fact-checkers can use FactSparrow Tipline to swiftly deliver their work to a growing pool of interested fact-seekers who have asked for it, deepen follower relationships and bring in new readers.

Half a dozen fact-checkers, including PolitiFact, Lead Stories and Check Your Fact, are participating in early trials of FactSparrow Tipline.

"Receiving and sorting through reader suggestions about claims we should investigate is a real challenge for fact checkers, but FactSparrow Tipline addresses several big issues,” said Alan Duke, Editor in Chief of Lead Stories. “Readers are guided through the process of submitting tips in a way that gives them immediate answers, while abusive messages are identified and screened out. We expect this will boost our ability to identify false content and misinformation trends."

Repustar intends to bring FactSparrow Tipline to a majority of North American fact-checkers in the coming months. Robyn Sundlee, Repustar’s Vice President of Engagement, emphasized, “As part of our community program, FactSparrow Tipline has been made available at no cost to all nonprofit fact-checking organizations that are certified by the International Fact-Checking Network, as well as to other reputed, nonpartisan, nonprofit news organizations. We want this important tool to be in the hands of journalists who see pushing back on misinformation as core to their mission.”

Any organizations interested in deploying FactSparrow Tipline can contact [email protected] for more details.

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