Facta is a registered newspaper at the court of Milan and one of the two projects of the parent company The Fact-Checking Factory Srl - TFCF Srl (previously Pagella Politica Srls), the other one being Pagella Politica: financial and administrative structure of the two fact-checking projects are the same. As an independent, for profit company, TFCF Srl has launched Facta in April 2020 as a project entirely devoted to debunking (non political fact-checking). Facta and Pagella Politica have separate websites and newsrooms, but share the same ownership and Director.

The above information about the legal status of Facta is clearly set out in the Who we are (“Chi siamo”) section of Facta’s website, here: https://facta.news/chi-siamo/

The applicant publishes the required information at the link provided and this link is clearly indicated and easily found on its site, not only at the link provided but also in the footer of each page. The applicant self-certifies its legal status in its webpage footer ("testata registrata presso il Tribunale di Milano, n. 56 dell’8 marzo 2021") and also provides a link to a scan of its Articles of Association (https://cdn.pagellapolitica.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Statuto-TFCF.pdf). As a side note, these are the same Articles of Association as the Pagella Politica website, since both Facta’s and Pagella Politica’s websites are managed by the company TFCF Srl, as noted in the information provided by the applicant for this assessment.

Facta is a project conceived, realized and owned by the Fact-Checking Factory Srl - TFCF Srl (previously Pagella Politica Srls), a registered limited liability company (società a responsabilità limitata) born at the end of 2013 with the aim of monitoring the declarations of the main Italian politicians, in order to assess their veracity through numbers and facts. However, disinformation is not only political, and in April 2020 TFCF launched Facta with the aim of broadening its field of investigation to all forms of disinformation, whatever their topic. Therefore, at present, TFCF is the parent company of two parallel projects: Pagella Politica (https://pagellapolitica.it/) which is mainly focused on political fact-checking and Facta (https://facta.news/) which is mainly focused on debunking. Facta’s website has been online since 25 March 2020. Its team is currently composed by 8 in-house staff, namely: Giovanni Zagni (Director), Camilla Vagnozzi (Editorial manager), Andrea Zitelli (Fact-checker), Simone Fontana (Fact-checker), Francesca Capoccia (Fact-checker), Anna Toniolo (Fact-checker), Valerio Uni (Fact-checker), Caterina Barbuscia (Social media manager). Since its start of activities, Facta has partnership agreements with the social network Facebook, the messaging app WhatsApp and TikTok. At present, Facta mainly focuses on producing short debunking articles based on suspicious news signaled by the audience, with a daily average of 6 published articles. While it is crucial to keep offering audiences concise pieces of verified information at such a fast pace, it is also key to provide them with more in-depth investigations on a number of selected disinformation stories. Facta is currently focusing on the goal of providing more and more of those, which are being collected in a specific category of our website, called “Storie”. In addition, Facta is about to launch a new newsletter focused on disinformation on climate change.

The information provided is correct to this assessor's knowledge. The Wayback Machine’s earliest record of Facta.news is dated 7 April 2020 (https://web.archive.org/web/20200407011136/https://www.facta.news/), and at that date Facta had already published a few fact checks, some dated 26 March 2020 (an example: https://web.archive.org/web/20200412025836/https://facta.news/2020/03/26/no-il-38-degli-americani-non-ha-smesso-di-bere-birra-corona-per-il-coronavirus/), which is consistent with the applicant's statement that the website “has been online since 25 March 2000”.

The internal staff members, contributors and fact-checking team members are listed at https://facta.news/chi-siamo/.

All the questions have been answered in detail.

All published debunking articles of FACTA can be found at the following link: https://facta.news/antibufale/

The applicant regularly publishes far more than the required average number of fact-checking articles per week. 

The percentage of fact-checks regarding topics that are impactful for the general public published over the last 12 months is well above 75%. Examples of such topics are the war in Ukraine, disinformation generated using AI, misattributed or faked videos related to national disasters, Italian and EU politicians, climate change, health issues such as Covid.

Facta is one of the two projects of the parent company The Fact-Checking Factory Srl - TFCF Srl (previously Pagella Politica Srls), the other one being Pagella Politica: financial and administrative structure of the two fact-checking projects are the same.

Our organization is completely independent and has no relationship with the state, politicians or political parties in Italy as well as in any other country.

We participated/participate in some of the main European projects in the field of disinformation, which are funded by the European Commission of the EU, namely: EDMO (European Digital Media Observatory, part of the

Connecting Europe Facility program), IDMO (Italian Digital Media Observatory), EFCSN (European Fact-checking Standards Network).

Facta’s involvement in these projects is explicitly mentioned here https://facta.news/chi-siamo/ , including a statement that its involvement in these projects has no impact on its editorial independence.

The statement provided is consistent with the information published at https://facta.news/chi-siamo/ and in its Articles of Association (https://cdn.pagellapolitica.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Statuto-TFCF.pdf. No evidence of undeclared relationships, funding or support has been found.

In the webpage where we detail Facta’s involvement in projects funded by the European Commission and other organizations ( https://facta.news/chi-siamo/), we also include a statement that its involvement in these projects has no impact on its editorial independence.

The link provided in the statement is correct and contains the information as described, in the “Finanziamenti” section. No funding from local or foreign state or political sources has been found and the public statement regarding funding at the link provided by the applicant contains detailed information regarding funding and support and also includes an explicit statement that the applicant has no relationships with political parties or the like (“La società non riceve denaro da partiti politici o da entità affiliate a partiti politici e mantiene completa indipendenza editoriale.”).

Facta’s work focuses on viral hoaxes and non-political disinformation. The 10 listed debunking articles concern some of the topics that have been most viral in Italy during the last reporting period (July 2022-July 2023). Those topics are: Covid-19, anti-Covid vaccines, war in Ukraine, climate crisis, death of Queen Elizabeth, death of Berlusconi, protests in France. In the selection below, we list debunking articles to which we assigned different categories (such as false news, misleading news, real news, out of context) to highlight that the verdicts Facta assigned are based on facts.

Facta’s team collects the contents that check mainly from users, following the same verification process for every information that needs to be checked. The procedure Facta’s team follows to perform the debunking articles starts from the analysis of the piece of content and its context (who published it and where); follows the verification of its veracity; and ends the drawing of conclusions. Each debunking article is associated with a category (or a verdict), based on Facta’s verification process and the data obtained. In each debunking article Facta’s team points out all the factual evidence found and demonstrates why a specific piece of content is a mis- or disinformation case. Each debunking article has a specific structure (introduction, description of the piece of content, short sentence that summarizes Facta’s verdict, description of the debunking process) and lots of links, so that the evidence is provided to users and they can evaluate by themselves the soundness of Facta’s process. Whenever possible, Facta’s team used photos or graphics to better explain the verification process to its readers.  

The provided attachment lists fact checks from the sister site Pagella Politica, not from Facta.news. However, a sampling of other fact checks published over the past 12 months appears to be balanced and non-partisan, follow a common structure and process, and present conclusions based fairly on the provided evidence. 

The pieces of content that we check are mainly collected from our audience, through direct messages (social media accounts, email, WhatsApp API service) and a specific page on our website (https://facta.news/segnalazioni/). The WhatsApp number is published through our social media accounts and is easily accessible through a button on our website. Being a project focused on online disinformation, with no political focus, there is no danger of excessive coverage of any “side”. Reach and importance – interpreted as the diffusion of the material – is taken into account from the editorial managers when deciding which content is to be checked first. This procedure of how we choose the claims is also explained here under the paragraph “Come Lavoriamo”: https://facta.news/chi-siamo/

The selection method is explained clearly at the link provided by the applicant (https://facta.news/chi-siamo/), in the “Come lavoriamo” section, and this information is indeed easily accessible from the fact-checking page via a prominent keyword (“Chi siamo”).

This information also provides a concise description of how undue concentration is avoided and of how reach and importance are considered.

A significant random sample of fact checks published over the last 12 months was reviewed and no significant disclosures were found to be required.

A significant random sample of fact checks published over the last 12 months was reviewed and no statements of support for any party, politician or political candidate were found; no advocacy for/against policy positions was found.

A public non-partisanship statement of the editorial staff is provided here: https://facta.news/chi-siamo/. Our internal hiring policy foresees that only individuals with no affiliation to political parties or political activism can be hired, and candidates are explicitly asked about it during the job interview. 

The link provided by the applicant offers the required policy statement, specifying that no staff members are members of political movements. The statement also specifies that this is a requirement for working for Facta and is checked during the candidate selection.

A significant randomised sample of sources provided in fact checks published the last 12 months was reviewed and the use of sources was found to be compliant and adequate to allow users to replicate the fact-checking process.

A significant randomised number of sources used in fact checks published over the last 12 months was reviewed in multiple fact checks and their use was found to be compliant, using primary sources wherever avaiable.

A significant randomised number of sources used in fact checks published over the last 12 months was reviewed; instances of multiple evidence sources were not frequent and the vast majority of sources of evidence were single, but this was due to the nature of the fact checks, which often did not allow multiple sources.

A significant randomised number of fact checks published over the last 12 months was reviewed and no instances of potentially influencing sources were found.

Facta is a project conceived, realized and owned by The Fact-Checking Factory Srl - TFCF Srl (previously Pagella Politica Srls), which is an independent, for profit organization. 

The statement provided by the applicant is correct. All funding sources for the past 12 months are detailed in the “Finanziamenti” section at https://facta.news/chi-siamo/.

The legal form (for-profit organization) is stated at https://cdn.pagellapolitica.it/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Statuto-TFCF.pdf . As noted in Criterion 1.1, these are the same Articles of Association as the Pagella Politica website, since both Facta’s and Pagella Politica’s websites are managed by the company TFCF Srl.

Facta is one of the two projects of the parent company The Fact-Checking Factory Srl - TFCF Srl (previously Pagella Politica Srls), the other one being Pagella Politica: financial and administrative structure of the two fact-checking projects are the same. In its Who we are (“Chi siamo”) webpage, Facta’s relationship to its parent company TFCF and to its sister project Pagella Politica is clearly stated: https://facta.news/chi-siamo/. At the same page, we also share the link to Pagella Politica’s webpage for details about the legal status and funding of TFCF SRL (https://pagellapolitica.it/progetto - “Come ci finanziamo?”)  

The links provided by the applicant offer the information described by the applicant.

Information about our organizational and editorial structure can be found here https://facta.news/chi-siamo/

The link provided by the applicant offers the information required, stating that editorial control is exercised prior to publication by two fact checkers in addition to the original creator of the content (“Prima della pubblicazione, tutte le analisi vengono sottoposte a due cicli di revisione da parte di due fact-checker, oltre dell’autore originale, per individuare eventuali errori e imprecisioni.”). The link also identifies two people as director and editorial manager.The link provided by the applicant offers the information required.The link provided by the applicant offers the information required.

The professional bios of the staff are available in our “who we are” section, here: https://facta.news/chi-siamo/ 

The link provided by the applicant offers the information required.

This link https://facta.news/segnalazioni/ provides users the possibility to contact our editorial team by email. The link is easily accessible, as it is displayed on the homepage as one of the buttons of the main menu. Users can also reach out to Facta’s editorial team through our WhatsApp API service, whose number is displayed on the homepage https://facta.news/ and on the https://facta.news/segnalazioni/ page. 

The link provided by the applicant is clearly evident to the reader and easy to find, via a prominent and relevant keyword (“Segnalazioni” in the heading of the home page and of all fact checks). This link offers information on how to communicate with the editorial team by WhatsApp and email. Facta.news also has social media accounts on Instagram, Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube and LinkedIn, listed at https://facta.news/chi-siamo/ . All members of the fact checking team also publish at least some contact information at https://www.open.online/chi-siamo/.

At the “Who we are” webpage on our website (https://facta.news/chi-siamo/), we have a paragraph titled “How do we work” (“Come lavoriamo”, in Italian), where our methodology is illustrated. This is what we write there: 1. We monitor news and social media viral contents by constantly reviewing the main Italian newspapers, both print and online, at a national and local level; we also monitor the leading press agencies; a blacklist of websites, Facebook pages and groups and Twitter profiles; 2. Through a WhatsApp API service, a dedicated email (segnalazioni@facta.news), Facta’s social media platforms and a specific page on Facta’s website (https://facta.news/segnalazioni/), we daily receive from our readers news, images, videos, voice messages, social media content that could potentially be false; 3. We then choose the content that contains facts or data that we can fact-check; 4. We fact-check the data and facts of the content, accurately quoting all the sources which we base our fact-checks on. Each article is checked by at least two people; 5. Finally, we give the article a grade based on a spectrum that goes from “Fake news” to “Real News”, passing through “Old News”, “Inaccurate News”, “Out of contest”, “Modified Image”, “Satirical News”. 

The description provided is correct and the links provided by the applicant offer concise methodology information.

Reach and importance criteria are explained at https://facta.news/chi-siamo/ (in the "Come lavoriamo" section). Claims are chosen primarily based on reader reports and on tools that allow to identify viral topics or news items (“Oltre ad esaminare i contenuti segnalati dai nostri lettori tramite il servizio WhatsApp e la sezione del sito “segnalazioni”, utilizziamo strumenti che ci consentono di identificare temi o notizie virali.”) The individual fact checks provide details on the reasons for choosing a claim to check. Usually the reason is that the claim touched a socially prominent topic and was made in newspapers, radio programmes, TV programmes or online media with high viewership/readership). A randomized sample of fact checks published over the last 12 months was reviewed and found to be compliant with the methodology and the criteria described here.

A significant randomised sample of fact checks published over the last 12 months was examined and evidence was found to be provided in each instance, both in support of a claim and against it.

A significant randomised sample of fact checks published over the last 12 months was examined; merit assessment of the evidence was found to be independent of who made the claim and based on high standards.

A significant sample of fact checks published over the last 12 months was reviewed and no instances of attempts to contact those who made the claim were found; however, no need for such contact was found, and in some instances the claimants were probably aware that the signatory had fact-checked their claim but saw no reason to reply or object. In other instances such contact was either not needed or not possible.

To encourage users to send in claims to check we:

give them the possibility to do so via social media, WhatsApp and email;

have included on our home page a WhatsApp button and relative dedicated banner which allows users to directly access the WhatsApp service from there;

placed on our main home page a banner inviting users to submit claims to be checked.

One page of the website is entirely dedicated to the possibility of sending in claims. We only verify claims which can be verified through official information and data, or accredited reports, studies and experts’ opinion (https://facta.news/segnalazioni/).

The link provided by the applicant is correct and includes the required encouragement (also on the home page) as well as a clear explanation of which claims are fact-checkable.

Link to Facta’s correction policy: https://facta.news/correzioni-rettifiche-aggiornamenti-quando-i-fact-checker-sbagliano/ . The link is well visible and accessible from the homepage.

The link provided by the applicant is valid, includes both the corrections policy and the corrections themselves, contains information that fully meets the compliance criteria as well as information on how to submit complaints, and is clearly linked by a self-explanatory banner on the home page.

Corrections are also noted prominently in the respective articles. Example: https://facta.news/articoli/2023/08/04/dieta-vegana-salute/

The policy ( https://facta.news/correzioni-rettifiche-aggiornamenti-quando-i-fact-checker-sbagliano/ ) clearly defines its coverage and error management criteria, and a review of the corrections published over the last 12 months indicates that the policy is adhered to scrupulously.

In the last year, Facta has received and addressed 5 correction requests. Among last year’s correction requests, one was about the date of approval of a law (the “Bossi-Fini” law): we accidentally wrote it was approved in 2022 instead of 2002. Another one was about the specific type of Bear which was the object of a debunking article: we wrote it was a brown bear, instead of black bear.

The full list of corrected articles is publicly available here: https://facta.news/correzioni-rettifiche-aggiornamenti-quando-i-fact-checker-sbagliano. In each case, Facta’s team adds the correction at the top of the debunking articles, other than in the above webpage.

Corrections are prominently pointed out, both on the website and in social media, and are presented transparently as described in the information provided by the applicant.

https://facta.news/correzioni-rettifiche-aggiornamenti-quando-i-fact-checker-sbagliano/

The applicant is an existing signatory and declares its IFCN signatory status at the link provided by the applicant. The link provided by the applicant is valid and adequately accessible and includes a link to the IFCN site (specifically to Facta's IFCN profile).

Facta is one of the two projects of the parent company The Fact-Checking Factory Srl - TFCF Srl (previously Pagella Politica Srls), the other one being Pagella Politica: financial and administrative structure of the two fact-checking projects are the same. The respective corrections policies can be find here:

Facta: https://facta.news/correzioni-rettifiche-aggiornamenti-quando-i-fact-checker-sbagliano/ 

Pagella Politica: https://pagellapolitica.it/progetto (paragraph “Come operiamo?”)

The information provided is correct.