What Cofacts 真的假的 does

Cofacts 真的假的 is a Taiwan-based civic technology nonprofit founded in 2017 that operates a community-driven fact-checking platform centered on a LINE chatbot. Legally affiliated with the 台灣實科協會 (Taiwan Science and Technology Association) and headquartered in Taipei, the project is run by volunteers with no paid staff. Its primary function is to enable Taiwanese LINE users to forward suspicious messages — health rumors, political claims, financial scams — directly to the @cofacts bot and receive instant, community-authored responses from a shared fact-check database. The platform explicitly aims to help users form independent judgments by presenting multiple perspectives rather than a single editorial verdict.

The platform comprises three components: (1) the LINE Bot (@cofacts) as the primary user interface, integrated with LINE's Messaging API; (2) a community-built fact-checking collaboration database storing volunteer-contributed responses, browsable via the web; and (3) the cofacts.tw web portal providing public access to messages, responses, and onboarding tutorials. The underlying technology is text matching against the response database; all source code, meeting minutes, and data are publicly shared under an open-source and open-data model aligned with the g0v civic technology movement. The service runs on a volunteer-contributor model with bi-monthly editor meetups (編輯小聚) held via KBKTIX to onboard new contributors, and reports approximately 250 new messages, 210 unique submitters, and 12 active volunteer editors per week.

Cofacts has no commercial revenue model. The organization is funded entirely by public donations processed via the Open Culture Foundation's (OCF) civic contribution platform, and operates with a product-led growth motion driven by LINE word-of-mouth sharing, supplemented by earned media coverage and g0v community events. Strategic partners include LINE Corporation (technology integration), OCF (donation processing and fiscal sponsorship), and the g0v movement (open-source infrastructure, developer community, and grants). Geographic scope is Taiwan-only; there is no disclosed enterprise sales motion, paid tier, or commercial channel.

Name

Cofacts 真的假的

Legal name

台灣實科協會

Website

https://cofacts.g0v.tw

Company type

Private

Founded year

2017

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Cofacts 真的假的 is a Taiwan-based nonprofit operating a LINE chatbot (@cofacts) that delivers community-sourced fact-checks on forwarded messages. Founded in 2017, the volunteer-driven open-source platform serves Taiwanese LINE users and is funded by public donations.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Taiwan

HQ country

Taiwan

HQ region

Asia

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Others

Revenue model

1. Public Donations: Cofacts is a nonprofit initiative with no commercial revenue model. The organization relies entirely on public donations via the Open Culture Foundation's (OCF) civic contribution platform. No advertising, subscription, or transaction fees are charged.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Cofacts operates a free LINE chatbot (ID: @cofacts) and a companion web portal (cofacts.tw) that allow Taiwanese users to forward suspicious messages (health hoaxes, political rumors, financial scams) for instant fact-checking against a community-built database. Volunteer editors contribute fact-check responses to the open database, and any user can add a reply to a claim they find under-covered, creating a collaborative verification model embedded inside the LINE messaging flow.

Product overview

Cofacts 真的假的 is a collaborative fact-checking platform centered around a LINE chatbot. The service consists of three interconnected components: the LINE Bot (LINE 機器人) as the primary user-facing product where users submit suspicious messages for instant verification; the Fact-Checking Collaboration Database that stores community-contributed responses; and the cofacts.tw website providing public access to browse messages, responses, and usage tutorials. The platform operates on a crowdsourced model where users both submit rumors for checking and contribute fact-check responses to help others.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Cofacts LINE Bot (@cofacts) A LINE chatbot that any Taiwanese LINE user can add as a friend (ID @cofacts or QR code) and forward suspicious messages to for instant fact-checking. The bot searches its community-built database of responses and returns relevant replies in real time within the LINE interface; no login or registration is required.
• cofacts.tw Web Portal A public web portal that lets users browse suspicious messages, read community-authored fact-check replies, see which questions are still awaiting verification, and submit new messages for fact-checking. The portal also hosts the user and editor onboarding tutorial section.

Quantifiable outcome

• 250 new messages submitted to the database per week from users
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration1 record

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Open Culture Foundation (OCF)coreGTM or Marketing Partner · 1 January 2017OCF (開放文化基金會) processes donations for Cofacts through their civic contribution platform (ocf.neticrm.tw), enabling the public to financially support the project. OCF also hosts the g0v grants program that Cofacts participates in.
• g0v civic technology movementcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2017Cofacts is a flagship project within the g0v civic technology movement in Taiwan. The project uses g0v's open-source collaboration infrastructure (hackfoldr, KBKTIX for event registration). Cofacts is listed on g0v.grants and carries the 'Powered by g0v' badge. The g0v community provides developer talent, hackathon participation, and cross-project visibility.
• LINE CorporationcoreTechnology or IntegrationCofacts operates a verified LINE Bot account (@cofacts) integrated with the LINE Messaging API. The bot provides the primary consumer interface for the fact-checking service. LINE's platform is the exclusive messaging channel for the product.

Scale indicators4 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• PolitiFact: IFCN-certified US fact-checking organization focused on political claims. Comparable mission of structured, transparent fact-checking with editorial oversight.
• Snopes: Pioneer online fact-checking outlet covering a broad range of misinformation topics. Comparable mission of debunking rumors, though Snopes operates as a large editorial site rather than a community messaging bot.
• AFP Fact Check: Fact-checking service from Agence France-Presse, one of the largest news agency fact-check operations globally. Comparable as a scaled institutional provider of misinformation verification.
• Google Jigsaw: Alphabet subsidiary building products (including misinformation and content moderation tools) at scale for global platforms. Comparable as an institutional provider of anti-misinformation technology, though operating from a very different resource base.

Direct peers

• Maldita.es: Spanish nonprofit fact-checking and media literacy organization offering a WhatsApp-based chatbot ("Maldita Bulo") for users to submit suspicious content. Most comparable peer because of the messaging-app-native verification workflow.
• Full Fact: UK-based nonprofit fact-checking organization using a combination of AI tooling and human reviewers to combat misinformation. Comparable mission and nonprofit structure to Cofacts, with greater scale and automation.
• Taiwan Fact-Check Center (TFC): Established Taiwanese fact-checking organization producing verification articles and participating in the IFCN network. Comparable because it tackles the same misinformation problem in Taiwan, albeit via editorial journalism rather than a community chatbot.
• MyGoPen: Taiwan-based LINE-native fact-checking service operating a similar chatbot that responds to forwarded rumors. Directly comparable because it targets the same Taiwanese LINE users with the same zero-friction fact-check workflow.

Emerging players

• Meedan: Nonprofit technology organization building collaborative verification tools (Check) used by fact-checkers worldwide. Comparable because of the shared open-source, community-collaboration model for content verification.

Regional players

• Factly: Indian fact-checking nonprofit focusing on public-interest claims in regional languages. Comparable as a mission-driven nonprofit tackling misinformation in a distinct linguistic market.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubbeta.hackfoldr.org/1yXwRJwFNFHNJibKENnLCAV5xB8jnUvEwY_oUq-KcETU
• Facebookfacebook.com/1959641497601003
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/cofacts

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Cofacts 真的假的