Question 1

What is Repustar?

Accepted Answer

Repustar is a fact publishing and distribution platform. Repustar combines the tools of journalism and data science to allow well-sourced Fact Briefs to be discovered by the public—when and where they most need them. Individuals questioning claims they encounter on social media can request new facts via Repustar services like FactSparrow. Groups with specialized knowledge and track records of nonpartisan, evidence-based work can research these questions and publish new Fact Briefs that get delivered into social media conversations where they’re relevant. The platform delivers resources to professionals who create, distribute and analyze news. Everything published on Repustar is backed up by high-quality, accessible sources.

About us

Who is behind Repustar?

What is FactSparrow?

Question 2

What is FactSparrow?

Accepted Answer

FactSparrow is Repustar’s social media fact request and delivery mechanism. Anyone can tag the FactSparrow bot in social media conversations and retrieve relevant facts or request new ones. FactSparrow's results come from a combination of Fact Briefs published on the Repustar platform and fact checks published by professional fact-checkers. If FactSparrow's results don't include a relevant fact, it will request a new Fact Brief on Repustar.

The bot, available now to Twitter users, will be accessible on other social platforms later in 2021.

FactSparrow on Twitter (external link)

What is Repustar?

What are Fact Briefs?

Question 3

What are Fact Briefs?

Accepted Answer

Fact Briefs are short 'yes/no' responses to claims that have been referred to the Repustar platform. Each Fact Brief less than 100 words and is composed by a subject matter expert or professional fact-checker. All are backed up by credible, often primary sources. If Repustar's FactSparrow bot is unable to deliver a relevant fact to a social media user, it will place a request on the Repustar platform for a contributor to compose a new Fact Brief.

What is Repustar?

What is FactSparrow?

How do contributors decide which sources to use?

Question 4

Who is behind Repustar?

Accepted Answer

Repustar is organized as a Benefit Corporation with the mission to advance a more fact-forward world. All investors and stakeholders in the company subscribe to that mission as a condition of participation. Repustar is currently majority owned by CEO and Founder Chandran Sankaran and is funded by him, along with a handful of minority investors including Greg Sands, Dave Pidwell, Dan Springer, and the firms Susquehanna Growth Equity and Cooley. Outside of these investors, there are a few technical and business advisors. None of them have any material influence on the company. No political or partisan organizations have any presence in the financing or management of Repustar.

What is a benefit corporation? (external link)

How does Repustar make money?

Who contributes to Repustar?

Question 5

Who contributes to Repustar?

Accepted Answer

Repustar welcomes participation by all sorts of organizations—professional publishers, educational institutions and other professional firms and research groups with expertise to share. Contributors share the goal of delivering factual information that is useful, relevant and connected to active public discussion. Contributors are asked to treat issues in a consistently neutral, calm and approachable voice, and to share transparently the sources on which they base their findings.

Contributing to Repustar

How do contributors decide which sources to use?

What is The Gigafact Project? (external link)

Question 6

How does Repustar make money?

Accepted Answer

We are currently funded by investors, but we hope to make money soon by creating a new generation of claim verification tools available for all people publishing and consuming content on the internet. We’ll keep you posted. Repustar does not allow advertising on the platform.

Does Repustar sell users' data to advertisers?

Who is behind Repustar?

Question 7

Does Repustar sell users' data to advertisers?

Accepted Answer

Repustar does not sell user data to advertisers. We want to enable more informed discussions online, not track and monetize everyone’s behavior and preferences—which is really what advertising models on the internet do. We believe that advertising models on the internet have been a fundamental driver of the misinformation problem to begin with.

How does Repustar make money?

Who is behind Repustar?

Who can be anonymous on Repustar?

Question 8

Who can be anonymous on Repustar?

Accepted Answer

Contributors’ identities are verified before they can access Repustar. Their organizational affiliation is attached to every review they contribute to the platform, and the individuals who write reviews must use their real names when publishing. Contributor organizations are required to be transparent about their commercial or organizational goals, leadership and funding. We subscribe to the principles laid out in the Online Broadcaster Framework.

Online Broadcaster Framework (external document)

How does Repustar prevent manipulation by bad actors?

Who contributes to Repustar?

Question 9

How does Repustar work to minimize the potential for bias in Fact Briefs?

Accepted Answer

We want Repustar employees and Reviewers to have an active life of civic engagement, vote in elections and push to make the world a better place. But we insist that they check their ideologies at the door when they contribute to Repustar.Everyone has biases—but we are trying hard to build a culture and review process that fosters unclouded assessments of underlying facts and data. To this end, we want Fact Briefs to be short, permit only the use of first-hand data in most cases, and remove the “who” or “why” from consideration. These methods help reduce bias. We want Repustar contributors and affiliates to push to make the world a better place. But we insist that they check their ideologies at the door when they contribute to Repustar.

Who contributes to Repustar?

How does Repustar prevent manipulation by bad actors?

How do contributors decide which sources to use?

Question 10

Why do Fact Briefs draw on the fact-checking model? Is it effective?

Accepted Answer

Research shows that publishing and sharing an explanation about the accuracy of a news-related claim can better inform discourse. These studies show that fact-checking is most impactful when:

The source is highly credible.
The explanation offers constructive information about the issue at hand (and doesn't just point out that the claim was wrong).
The fact-check doesn’t attempt to challenge anyone's identity or worldview.
The fact-check is delivered early—before misinformation has had time to spread.

These criteria guide Repustar’s style standards for Fact Briefs.

Who contributes to Repustar?

How do contributors decide which sources to use?

What is FactSparrow?

Question 11

How does Repustar prevent manipulation by bad actors?

Accepted Answer

The option to publish on the Repustar platform is not open to the general public. Our editorial team carefully vets all organizations that express interest in contributing Fact Briefs to the platform, and each organization that joins must commit to upholding a set of principles for transparency, accuracy and nonpartisanship.

Who can be anonymous on Repustar?

Who contributes to Repustar?

How does Repustar account for the usage of facts published on the platform?

Question 12

How does Repustar account for the usage of facts published on the platform?

Accepted Answer

Sometimes facts can be used to support bad arguments. This is definitely an issue in many public conversations, but right now, we are only focused on tackling the inaccessibility of facts when and where they’re needed. However, manipulation of factual information in support of bad arguments is definitely something that we are aware of and take into consideration as we build our products.

How does Repustar prevent manipulation by bad actors?

How does Repustar work to minimize the potential for bias in Fact Briefs?

What is Repustar?

Question 13

How do contributors decide which sources to use?

Accepted Answer

Contributors look for data, research and documents from credible, impartial sources. You will typically find they rely largely on these types of first-hand documents:

Research findings: Published reports and studies from academic and scientific publications, accredited educational institutions, public-sector bodies at all levels of government and nonpartisan nonprofits. When citing private organizations, contributors are asked to ensure that the source has clearly identified objectives and transparent disclosures about governance and financing.
Public documents: Official statistical databases, publicly available legal documents and filings, official statements and reports, transcripts of public proceedings, legislative texts and reports.
Interview or eyewitness accounts: Video, audio or written commentary and discussion attributed to individuals and organizations. These may sometimes be contained in the cited news items from national or local news providers. Local news reports may sometimes offer first-hand reporting and documentation that’s not otherwise available. Tweets and other social-media posts may be included if no other documentation is easily shared.

When a relevant data source is difficult to access, a contributor occasionally may compile the information on a shared document hosted on a cloud service account managed by Repustar. The sources of the underlying data or research will be noted and linked, if possible.

Who contributes to Repustar?

How does Repustar account for the usage of facts published on the platform?

How does Repustar prevent manipulation by bad actors?

Question 14

Are we missing something?

Accepted Answer

Email here with any questions!

FAQ