Facts for the future

Online misinformation is rampant. At the same time, the supply of factual and well-sourced knowledge has never been greater nor easier to access.

We know fact checks help counter misleading claims and set the record straight, and the technology to intercept these claims and amplify fact is here, but the fact checks themselves are in short supply.

In the US, approximately 250 fact checks are written every week by credentialed organizations. This number is growing, but at a slow pace. Gigafact estimates that the current volume addresses 10-15 percent of claims circulating on social media.

Gigafact seeks to dramatically boost the supply of fact checks and to deliver them in formats and channels that make them more easily discovered where they’re most needed. The goal: Enable people everywhere to better judge the credibility of information they encounter online.

“In the years that we’ve been studying the rise of misinformation, we’ve realized there simply aren’t enough fact-checks to counter all the falsehoods. Gigafact is addressing this head-on with a wonderfully simple approach that should yield a dramatic increase in fact checks.”

–Bill Adair, Founder, PolitiFact; Knight Professor of Journalism and Public Policy, Duke University

Gigafact is funding and equipping local newsrooms to push back against misinformation, while increasing their relevance and impact with readers. With Gigafact's platform and training, newsrooms can produce short-form fact briefs that directly intercept current claims on social media.

We are starting our efforts in the US and then plan to expand globally. To do so, we are enlisting highly credible news outlets that don’t today have a fact-checking operation or have inadequate funding in this area.

Gigafact supports newsrooms with funds, tools and training, and works to get their work more widely seen. It follows currently accepted standards for governance, transparency and accountability, in collaboration with established industry organizations and standards.

“Gigafact is seeking to really accelerate the success we have had with the fact-checking journey so far, by growing the community, providing them essential tools, support and funding, and empowering local news and other credible sources to become fact-checkers. The time is right for this kind of vision, action and expansion.”

–Baybars Orsek, Director, International Fact-Checking Network

Gigafact so far

Gigafact has concluded a successful pilot with three nonprofit newsrooms in key swing states that fact-checked claims surrounding the 2022 Midterm Elections: The Nevada Independent, Wisconsin Watch, and the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting. Together, the newsrooms published 330+ new fact briefs. As a result, participants saw increases in their website traffic, as well as their social media engagement. Read an accounting of one newsroom’s experience here.

This pilot deployed the tools and strategies Gigafact has developed since its inception in May 2020. These tools include an online publishing platform incubated by Repustar, a privately-funded benefit corporation based in the San Francisco Bay Area. On this platform Gigafact has published more than 2,000 “fact briefs”—short, credibly-sourced summaries that are responsive to common claims encountered online.

Gigafact is grateful to the organizations that have helped pilot its early efforts, using the Gigafact platform to produce fact briefs based on their own work. In addition to its midterm election partners, contributors so far include other fact-checking organizations (The Associated Press, Lead Stories), other news providers (the Mississippi Center for Investigative Journalism) and specialized research groups (USAFacts, EconoFact).

View fact briefs by Gigafact contributors

Access fact brief resources from the 2022 Midterm Election Pilot

Gigafact has applied to become a 501(c)(3) organization. In the meantime, we are able to receive charitable contributions via a fiscal sponsorship arrangement with the Institute for Nonprofit News. Please contact us if you’re interested in supporting or collaborating with our efforts.

Want to learn more about Gigafact? Check out the Gigafact FAQs.

“I spend a lot of time thinking about the future of news and journalism, and I love what Gigafact is trying to do: Bring high quality journalism into a system that quickly intercepts misinformation and disinformation before it spreads too far online. It’s a vitally needed service.”

–T. Christian Miller, two-time Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter

Standards

All fact briefs published with Gigafact meet rigorous standards and are designed to provide balanced, dispassionate assessment of a wide range of claims encountered in the news and on social media.

Briefs offer firm "yes" or "no" answers with short explanations, supported by publicly-accessible, often primary sources. They focus on topics that are being actively debated, but avoid personality conflicts, opinions, judgment calls and speculation.

Editorial independence

Gigafact is dedicated to a more informed public, and we maintain our independence from advocacy, financial and other interests. Gigafact does not engage in lobbying activities for any policies or causes. While Gigafact has published its own fact briefs in the past, Gigafact today is made up of member organizations that subscribe to similar policies of independence, transparency and ethics as a condition of participation.

Transparency

We are committed to transparency in every aspect of funding our organization. Accepting financial support does not mean we endorse donors or their products, services or opinions.

We accept gifts, grants and sponsorships from individuals, organizations and foundations to help with our general operations, coverage of specific topics and special projects. As a nonprofit we may receive funds from standard government programs offered to nonprofits or similar businesses.

Our judgments are made independently – not based on or influenced by donors or any revenue source. We do not give supporters the rights to assign, review or edit content.

We make public all revenue sources and donors who give $5,000 or more per year. We avoid accepting charitable donations from anonymous sources, government entities, political parties, elected officials or candidates seeking public office. We will not accept donations from sources who, deemed by our board of directors, present a conflict of interest with our work or compromise our independence.

“Our research shows that we can improve students' ability to sort fact from fiction online by teaching them the strategies of professional fact checkers. Making fact-checks ubiquitously available, as Gigafact seeks to do, will be an invaluable resource for digital literacy.”

–Joel Breakstone, Director, Stanford History Education Group

Funding

This list will show donors who have contributed in excess of $5,000, and will be updated periodically.

Repustar (a benefit corporation targeting misinformation solutions, where the technology solution and concepts for Gigafact were incubated and tested)

Yuval Bar-Zemer

Mallika and Chandran Sankaran

M-K O'Connell

Leonetti/O’Connell Family Foundation

Dan Springer

Gigafact Board of Directors (in formation)

Chandran Sankaran (Founder)

John Marcom (Co-founder)

Kenneth Guernsey

Elizabeth Thompson

Gigafact Staff

Co-founder and Head of Operations Robyn Sundlee

Editorial Manager Austin Tannenbaum

Finally, we want to acknowledge the great work put in by the Repustar team in building and supporting the Gigafact platform and smart tools. Sandeep Verma, Abhilash Goswami, Dhiren Raghu, and many others—thank you!