Repustar Launches Intelligent, Friendly Bot to Help Twitter Users Do Their Own Fact-Checking

FactSparrow enables any user to summon documented facts while in the middle of an online conversation.

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Repustar, a novel fact dissemination platform dedicated to promoting accuracy and authoritative sourcing on social media platforms, announced today that it has launched FactSparrow, an AI-enabled, friendly bot on Twitter, created to deliver documented facts when and where consumers need them most.

In early testing on Twitter, the bot has already attracted more than 2,000 followers including social-media influencers, political figures, journalists, scientists and others. The company plans to make the service available worldwide on Twitter and on other social platforms this year.

“We live in an era of proliferating misinformation that is leaving people confused about what to believe and whom to trust,” said Repustar Founder and Chief Executive Officer Chandran Sankaran. “Repustar’s mission is to ensure people can access facts that are credibly sourced when they encounter dubious claims on social media or messaging apps. FactSparrow helps make it easy and engaging to do this.”

When a social media user queries FactSparrow, proprietary AI first scans the posts in the thread in question for context, then delivers in real time relevant facts that are published on Repustar or on other fact-check repositories. If relevant documentation is not available, a question is flagged on the platform for Repustar’s contributors. The answers provided by these contributors add to the growing stockpile of well-sourced facts that are responsive to claims about the news and current events.

Repustar enables eligible contributors to publish simple, easy to consume, credibly sourced facts that are responsive to public needs, by following clear platform guidelines to ensure transparency and trust. Academic, research, and professional journalism/news organizations with histories of producing non-partisan, evidence-based information are currently eligible to contribute facts on Repustar.

“As the use of FactSparrow increases, there will be more facts circulating on social media, and more people who are accustomed to challenging claims with facts, and with that we hope, the addition of some new guardrails that will slow the spread of misinformation all around us,” Sankaran said.

ABOUT REPUSTAR

Founded in 2019, Repustar is a novel fact publishing and dissemination platform that combines the rigor of professional journalism with the tools of data science and AI. Repustar enables non-partisan, evidence-based organizations to publish short, credibly sourced Fact Briefs that are responsive to common claims encountered online. The platform then gives consumers and content professionals access to these facts when and where they most need it. With the proliferation of misinformation that has left people disoriented and uncertain about what to believe and whom to trust, Repustar seeks to enable a fact-forward world. The company is organized as a Benefit Corporation and is led by seasoned executives with experience in technology company building and news media operations. For more information, visit Repustar.com.