Political accountability through radical transparency
Nonfaction is a civic infrastructure project. We trace the relationships between money, influence, and policy — mapping every signal back to primary source evidence, without editorial commentary, without hidden logic, and without partisan framing.
We believe the most powerful accountability tool is a complete, accurate, and auditable record. Not narrative. Not opinion. Record.
Source Attribution
Every data point traces directly to a verifiable primary source — a government filing, an official vote record, or a federal disclosure document. If we cannot link it, we do not publish it.
No Editorial Opinion
We present records, timelines, and relationships exactly as they appear in public documentation. Nonfaction draws no conclusions, assigns no motives, and issues no endorsements.
Open Source
Every algorithm that scores, ranks, or surfaces data on this platform is publicly auditable. Our scoring logic, ingestion pipelines, and verification workflows live in open repositories under GPL v3.
Methodology
Every record on Nonfaction passes through a three-stage pipeline before it surfaces publicly. Each stage is documented, versioned, and open for inspection on GitHub.
Ingest
Automated scrapers and API clients pull structured data from federal, state, and municipal disclosure systems on scheduled intervals. Sources include FEC bulk data, Congress.gov API, Senate LDA filings, and CourtListener.
Verify
Raw records are parsed into canonical schemas — entities, events, relationships — and validated against cross-referenced primary sources. High-impact records undergo additional human review before promotion.
Correlate
Verified entities are linked across datasets using deterministic entity-resolution rules. Event pairs are timestamped and scored for temporal proximity. All correlation logic is documented and versioned openly.
Data sources
All records are derived exclusively from official government filings and nonprofit watchdog databases. No inferred or estimated data is published without explicit labeling.
Campaign finance disclosures including contributions, expenditures, and independent spending. Updated continuously from FEC bulk data exports.
Bill text, co-sponsorship records, committee assignments, floor votes, and member biographical data for all congressional sessions.
Lobbying registrations and activity reports filed under the Lobbying Disclosure Act, including registrant, client, and issue area data.
Federal court opinions, PACER filings, and case metadata for identifying legal proceedings involving officials, entities, and associated persons.
Curated campaign finance and lobbying summaries, industry codes, and PAC data used for sector-level relationship analysis.
Who builds this
Built by developers and data journalists
Nonfaction is built by a team of developers and data journalists committed to transparency. Full contributor profiles and advisory relationships will be published with complete disclosure notes as the project matures. We hold ourselves to the same transparency standards we demand of the institutions we document.
Profiles forthcomingAuditability by design
The entire Nonfaction platform — scrapers, ingestion pipelines, scoring algorithms, and this web application — is developed in the open under GPL v3. If you can use it to hold governments accountable, you can read, fork, and improve it.
Source license
GPL v3
All platform source code is free software. Forks must remain open under the same license.
Data license
CC-BY-SA 4.0
Curated datasets are freely shareable with attribution and share-alike requirements.
Our commitments
Public figures only. Nonfaction documents the public conduct of elected officials, candidates, lobbyists, and other persons who have voluntarily entered public life. We do not publish information about private individuals.
No inferred private data. All connections and correlations are based on documented, public-record events. We do not speculate about undisclosed relationships or publish unverified allegations.
Correction policy. If a record on Nonfaction is factually incorrect, we will correct it promptly and note the correction in the record's revision history. Contact requests@nonfaction.org with evidence and we will review within 5 business days.
No advertising or sponsored content. Nonfaction does not accept advertising or sponsored content. We will never accept money to add, remove, or modify records.
Get in touch
Questions about data accuracy, methodology, potential collaboration, corrections, or press inquiries — reach out directly. We read every email.
General help
help@nonfaction.orgQuestions about the platform, data interpretation, or technical issues.
Press & partnerships
contact@nonfaction.orgMedia inquiries, research collaboration, and institutional partnerships.
Data requests
requests@nonfaction.orgBulk data access, custom exports, and corrections to published records.