The problem
Most feeds are built to keep you scrolling, and the surest way to do that is to show you more of what you already agree with.
Researchers writing for the Brookings Institution describe how ranking posts by engagement amplifies divisive content inside networks of like-minded users. Over time the other side stops looking like a set of different opinions and starts looking like a threat.
That fear shows up offline. Seventy percent of U.S. social media users say they rarely or never post about political or social issues, and about a third of them say they don’t want to be attacked for their views. By one estimate, up to 6 million voters stayed home in 2024 because of safety concerns. Read the research behind Cogito.
Why I built it
I noticed the political environment at my school getting more and more hostile. Disagreements that used to end in a debate started ending in insults, and people began sorting each other by which side they assumed you were on. Class discussions went quiet whenever they drifted toward politics, because saying the wrong thing could follow you out of the room. A lot of us, me included, decided it was easier to say nothing.
That silence stayed with me. While writing a research paper on algorithmic bias, I learned how recommendation systems quietly reward the views we already hold. The people around me weren’t just disagreeing. They had stopped hearing each other at all.
I started Cogito in the summer of 2025 to teach myself web development. It turned into a tool that does the opposite of a normal feed: it puts the other side’s coverage in front of you and shows you how the story you’re reading is framed.
Shaurya Jindal, founder
What Cogito does
- Bias Detector
- Paste a link to any article. Two open-source AI models read it and tell you whether it leans left, right or neither, then show the passages that drove the result.
- Political Quiz
- Ten statements place you on an economic axis and a social axis. The result stays in your browser.
- News Feed
- Search any topic and see coverage from across the spectrum, each story labeled with its outlet’s lean. After the quiz, switch on Only opposing views to read the other side first.
The methodology explains how each one works, including where each falls short.
What Cogito is not
- A referee
- Every label is an estimate. The Bias Detector shows its evidence so you can judge for yourself.
- A fact-checker
- A story can lean left or right and still be accurate. Lean describes framing and word choice, not truth.
- A data collector
- Your quiz result lives in a cookie on your own device. There are no accounts and no database. Read the privacy page.
Where the name comes from
Cogito is Latin for “I think.” It is the first word of René Descartes’ “Cogito, ergo sum,” or “I think, therefore I am,” which he reached by doubting everything he had been told until only that one certainty was left. The site asks for a smaller version of the same habit: question the framing before you accept the story.
What’s next
Ideas in progress, roughly in order:
- Lateral reader
- Professional fact-checkers judge a source by reading what others say about it. Cogito would look up an outlet’s ownership, funding and affiliations for you.
- Counterpoint finder
- After analyzing an article, Cogito would suggest a credible piece on the same topic from the other side.
- Side by side
- Major stories shown the way the left, center and right covered them, with differences in framing and omission laid out.
- Opinion filter
- A switch that separates opinion columns from news reporting.
- A research-based quiz
- Rebuilding the quiz on published survey research, with credit to its authors.