PoliticaMente, a fact-checking website on Italian politics, has been launched
Designed to raise awareness amongst young people of the tools needed to understand the issues under discussion
Her name is Aurora Nanni; she is 20 years old and is studying Politics, Philosophy and Economics (PPE) at Luiss Guido Carli University in Rome. She is the creator of a website dedicated to fact-checking Italian politics and civic education: https://politicamente.ai, a platform designed for her peers and for anyone wishing to “understand the facts of Italian politics through a neutral database free from interpretation.”
“It’s the first of its kind: for many young people,” explains the creator, “the main obstacle keeping them away from the ballot box isn’t a lack of interest, but the feeling that they don’t have the tools needed to fully understand what’s being discussed. With PoliticaMente, my aim has been to create a neutral space where everyone can find answers to their questions about politics and our country’s institutions.”
‘This difficulty is exacerbated by the way information is consumed today. Social media, videos, statements and comments – all accessible in real time – allow people to join the debate immediately, but do not always provide the context needed to fully understand an issue before forming an opinion. This is precisely where PoliticaMente comes in: reconstructing the context before forming an opinion. The website has been developed as a complex information system, comprising a series of interconnected steps based on an archive of newspapers, institutional sources, legislation and statistics.
‘When it comes to fact-checking, the system adopts an even more rigorous approach: the statement is broken down into its verifiable components, compared with the available sources and assessed on the basis of the evidence found. Consequently, the system can confirm, refute or contextualise the information provided, whilst always keeping the sources used visible.”
