Meedan

Meedan is a global technology not-for-profit that builds software and programmatic initiatives to strengthen journalism, digital literacy, and accessibility of information online and off. We develop open-source tools for creating and sharing context on digital media through annotation, verification, archival, and translation. We work with technologists, newsrooms, fact-checkers, public health professionals, NGOs and academic institutions on award-winning projects from election monitoring to pandemic response to human rights documentation.

This work supports our vision of a more equitable internet.

Our primary product is Check, a tool for collaboratively verifying and fact-checking online content. It combines smart checklists, workflow integrations, and intuitive design to make digital newsgathering an efficient and collaborative process. Check Global augments Meedan’s existing suite of open source tools and open licensed online and offline training to support emerging practices in digital media literacy skills, fact-checking, disinformation monitoring and evaluation, and media literacy skills building for social impact. We also run a global fact-checking project using the WhatsApp Business API in 5 countries and 4 languages.

Meedan's Digital Health Lab works on information equity as a public health issue. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the lab brought together a team of scientists to form Health Desk, a team tasked with supporting fact-checking organizations and journalists reporting on health misinformation about COVID-19. It launched on April 15, 2021, and as of October 12, 2021 more than 1.5 million people have visited the site.

We also co-founded the Credibility Coalition, an initiative to develop web standards for third party credibility indicators, and spun off and holds an equity stake in a for profit called Meedan Labs to explore creative consulting and product development opportunities.