g0v Project "Cofacts" Quickstart

Cofacts is a collaborative system connecting instant messages and fact-check reports together. It's a grass-root effort fighting mis/disinformation in Taiwan.

To be more specific,

• Collaborative system: Anyone can forward messages to Cofacts. Furthermore, anyone can become an editor to collaborate on the website. All works is distributed via CC BY-SA.
• Instant messages: User-reported instant messages in LINE messaging network, collected via a chatbot
• Fact-check reports: Existing fact-checking articles the editors found on the internet, or counter-narratives written by the editors.

Visit the landing page for more info!

Understand Cofacts in 180 seconds

If you are new to this project and want to understand what we are doing, please take a look at this talk (English closed caption available via

button）

Slides

We also have a 8-minute introductionary talk in English if you want English materials.

How people can help

There are different roles for the participants in this project.

You can be an…

Role	Job
	- Browse instant message database - Compose replies (TW) » Editor's Homepage « (TW)
	- Add Cofacts chatbot as contact in LINE - Forward suspicious messages to the chatbot - Forward replies from chatbot to where they received the suspicious message

About this Hackfoldr

We have publicized all our documents. You can find them on the sidebar which listed on the left column. (Mobile menu on the top.)

Since these documents are notes taken from our discussions, most of these materials are unfortunately only available in Mandarin. Bring a translator with you as you as you glide through the docs!

• (Top level documents): You can understand our project after browsing these documents and videos (English captions available).
• For Editors: Contains all the info you need to know to become an editor. Click here to enter the Editor's entrance!
• For LINE users: QR code to our LINE bot, and usage instructions
• Meeting notes: Team member's weekly meeting notes.
• Devs: Software development information.
• Design: Product design/UI/UX documents.
• Operation: Promotion guide, Facebook group administration rules, editors' meetup preparations, etc.
• Interviews & Related News: Interviews of team members by the journalists. Also collcts news articles related to fact-checking.
• g0v grant 2017s：Documents used in g0v Civil Tech Prototype Grant.
• Archive: Outdated info for reference. Like a recycle bin.

FAQ

What is g0v? How is this project related to g0v?

g0v is an online community in Taiwan that promotes public participation in democratic societies with the aid of open-source softwares.

Cofacts is one of the open-source project proposed during one of the g0v hackathons. Cofacts also receives Civic Tech Prototype Grant from g0v.

How does the landscape of mis/disinformation in Taiwan look like?

Nicholas J. Monaco at University of Oxford has written a great report offering the background knowledge in terms of computational propaganda in Taiwan. This project is also in the report! (p.14) Kudos to Nick.

Confact us

If you want to chat with us, find us in #cofacts channel in g0v slack:
🗣 https://g0v.hackpad.com/ep/pad/static/h

If you are an editor and want to find someone to discuss while fact-checking, please head to the Facebook group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/cofacts/

For any other collaboration or communication purposes, please reach us via email:

[e-mail]

Other links

💼 The cofacts project hackfoldr: http://謠言.大平台.tw/

📳 Follow Cofacts in LINE messenger

• https://line.me/R/ti/p/%40cofacts (Taiwanese Mandarin chatbot & database)
• https://line.me/R/ti/p/%40439txwho (English chatbot, Taiwanese Mandarin database)