Critically

Critically's commitment to you

Nothing on this page is aspirational. We have six rules that govern our work and our commitment to you.

1. 01

   We never tell you what is true

   We will never tell you something is true or false. We show you the claim, the sources it rests on, and who disagrees. You decide.

   • Nothing here carries a truth score, a credibility rating or a confidence percentage. You can see how many citations support a claim and how many dispute it, which is a distribution rather than a verdict.
   • We capture a snapshot of every cited source and alert you when that source changes, or when the exact passage quoted stops appearing.
   • A note without a citation is marked as "unsourced". That doesn't mean untrue — it means nobody has backed it up yet.
2. 02

   No ads. Not now, not ever

   Advertising is the primary reason that most news cannot be trusted. There's no conflict of interest here.

   • There are no ads. Instead, Critically is supported by people who find value in these tools.
   • Nothing is promoted, boosted, sponsored or placed. There is no position on this site that money can buy.
   • Additionally, your personal data is not sold, shared or brokered.
3. 03

   No manipulative user interface patterns

   We do not sell your attention, so we have no reason to trap it. None of the dark patterns that keep people scrolling, checking and coming back are here, and none will be added.

   • There are no like buttons or reactions. Instead what matters is the quality of the research: how often a claim is cited, and how many people keep it on their own board.
   • There is no infinite feed. There are no invisible algorithms controlling what you see. We are working on ways to expose and open source the discovery flow so that you are in control of what you see.
   • There are no rewards or badges for constantly spending time on the site. Instead, we invite you to complete quests at your own pace which incentivize you to engage with other users, dig deeper into claims, and learn more about topics you are interested in.
4. 04

   Humans first. AI can never verify claims.

   A model is never asked to decide what is true. Checking a claim against the sources under it is something only a person does.

   • An AI model is never asked to rule on what is true, to rank claims by credibility, or to settle a disagreement between two people. It is refused those jobs in writing.
5. 05

   Your privacy

   Everyone says they value privacy. Here is what that actually means here.

   • You should be able to browse, learn, and expand your mind without being tracked. As such, we don't track views or followers. You cannot become an influencer on Critically.
   • The site stores its own copy of every website icon rather than loading them from the source, so no outside company learns what you are reading.
   • Discussion lives only in private notebooks. Publish one and its conversation is deleted rather than exposed — a private conversation never becomes a public record.
   • Everything you wrote comes out in one file, whenever you ask, free, on any plan.
   • Deleting withdraws your name. A note other people have kept stays on their boards, without your byline — they were never asked to lose it.
6. 06

   Free for research. Always

   Paying never changes how your work is treated here. It buys time and tools, never standing.

   • Writing, citing, having every source archived and watched, search, and taking all of your data out are free on every plan and always will be.
   • A paying account is not ranked higher, trusted more, or shown ahead of anyone. There is no ranking here for money to buy.
   • If the archive were paid for, a free user's claims would be less checkable than a paying user's. That is the opposite of the point.
   • A publisher can answer a claim about their pages, at the same weight, attached to it. That right is free too — selling it would turn “publishers may answer” into “we sell publishers the right to answer”.
   • What costs money is what makes one person faster: storage, research tools, model time, and giving a board its own published address. The format itself is not hidden — anyone can see their own work laid out that way.