On 2 April 2020, SOMA partner Pagella Politica launched a new project, called Facta (https://facta.news/). Facta is an online platform entirely devoted to debunking hoaxes – i.e. non political fact-checking. The slogan “Choose what not to believe”, summarizes its goal: informing readers about which news circulating in the media and social networks are false, decontextualized or inaccurate.
Together with the website, Facta has also launched in Italy a new service of content verification via WhatsApp, in partnership with Facebook, with the aim of contrasting the rapid spread of misinformation about COVID-19. Via WhatsApp, users are able to point out news, videos, images or audio they would like to verify. Facta’s editorial team collects the claims and provides users with feedback, pointing them to the content already published on its website, latest debunking articles and other services. Users are updated through WhatsApp statuses and a daily roundup of the new articles.