Meedan, Inc. is a San Francisco, California-based technology nonprofit with a focus on combating alleged misinformation online and in the media. The group created the online tool Check which allows journalists and others to fact check information submitted to Meedan. ¹

In November 2022, a high-ranking Meedan, Inc. employee criticized the reinstatement of banned accounts in the wake of the takeover of Twitter (now X) by billionaire Elon Musk. ²

In February 2024, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government reported that Meedan, which received a $5.7 million grant from the National Science Foundation, delivered a presentation claiming that distrust of the mainstream media was a “misinformation narrative.” ³

Background

Meedan, Inc. was founded in 2006. ⁴

In its 2022 annual report, CEO Edward Bice claimed, “Information integrity is the challenge of our time. Today’s world has four billion publishers creating and distributing rumors, news, narratives, and information. Misinformation is destabilizing global elections, hampering pandemic recovery, and fomenting civic unrest and violence around the world.” ⁵

Check

Meedan, Inc. created the Check fact-checking tool to enable journalists and others to coordinate submissions of information that it can analyze and report as either true or false. It has been used by ProPublica for election reporting and documenting hate crimes and by Amnesty International, and has been used during the 2017 French elections, elections in the United Kingdom, and elections in Hong Kong .¹

In 2019, Check became integrated with WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, WeChat, and other private messenger services to automate the distribution of fact-checked information. A user can forward information to Check and if the information has already been fact-checked, Check will auto-reply with the information taken directly from the fact-checker’s article. ⁶

Advocacy

Support For Twitter Bans

Before Elon Musk took over Twitter in 2022, Meedan, Inc. worked with Twitter on content moderation and safety procedures. ²

After Musk took over Twitter, Meedan, Inc.’s content moderation program lead Katherine Lo criticized Musk for reinstating accounts banned by the previous leadership. Lo asserted that it was possible to harm someone on social media without breaking any harassment or libel laws. ²

Misinformation Tiplines

In early 2024, the National Science Foundation awarded a $5.7 million grant to Meedan, Inc to create the Co-Insights project, with the goal of “combatting hate, abuse and misinformation within minority led partnerships.”  The project creates “misinformation tiplines” that allow users to send information to have it fact-checked. The left-of-center Patrick J. McGovern Foundation funded the project with a $500,000 grant. The Foundation for Freedom Online warned in a report that this project could be used to read the private messages of Americans. ⁷

Distrust of Media

In February 2024, the U.S. House Judiciary Committee’s Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released a report of a presentation Meedan, Inc. gave which claimed distrust of the mainstream media was a “misinformation narrative.” ³

Supporters

According to Meedan, Inc. these groups support its work: ⁸

• AJ+
• Al Manassa
• Amnesty International
• Animal Político
• Bellingcat
• Birmingham City University
• BrowserStack
• CITE
• Code for Africa
• Facebook Journalism Project
• First Draft
• Ford Foundation
• Global Voices
• Google News Initiative
• IBM
• Institute of International Education
• International Press Institute
• Kiva
• Knight Foundation
• MacArthur Foundation
• Mada Masr
• NAWA Media
• National Science Foundation
• Omidyar Network
• Open Technology Fund
• Out of Eden Walk
• Oxford Internet Institute
• PesaCheck
• ProPublica
• SMEX
• Sida
• Syrian Archive
• The American University in Cairo
• The Carter Center
• The Data Guild
• The Guardian
• UC Berkeley School of Law Human Rights Center
• University of Cambridge
• University of Hong Kong
• Verificado
• Vermont Community Foundation
• WITNESS
• Welad El Balad
• ZimFact

Leadership

Meedan, Inc’s CEO and co-founder is Edward Bice. ⁹

Finances

According to Meedan, Inc.’s 2022 tax return, the group had $5,777,533 in revenue, $5,367,906 in expenses, and $3,741,345 in assets. ⁹

The group gave $129,875 to the University of Massachusetts Amherst, $110,163 to the University of Connecticut, and $129,782 to the University of Pennsylvania to create fact-checking tools. ¹⁰

1. Lichterman, Joseph. “This Tool Is Helping Newsrooms Collaborate on Factchecking and Verification Projects.” Nieman Lab, July 24, 2017. https://www.niemanlab.org/2017/07/this-tool-is-helping-newsrooms-collaborate-on-factchecking-and-verification-projects/.
2. Sullivan, Mark. “Elon Musk May Inadvertently Spur Congress to Action On …” Fast Company, November 30, 2022. https://www.fastcompany.com/90817727/musk-may-inadvertently-spur-congress-to-action-on-regulating-social-platforms.
3. Lynch, James. “Meedan Views Distrusting Mainstream Media as ‘misinformation,’ Report Finds.” The Daily Caller, February 7, 2024. https://dailycaller.com/2024/02/07/national-science-foundation-distrust-mainstream-media-misinformation-meedan/?utm_source=referral&utm_medium=offthepress&utm_campaign=home.
4. Bice, Ed. “Ed Bice on Linkedin: 2022 Marks the 16th Year of Meedan. Our Annual Report Offers a View to The…” LinkedIn, August 15, 2023. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/edbice_2022-marks-the-16th-year-of-meedan-our-annual-activity-7097275201414991873-h6mL.
5. “2022 Annual Report.” Meedan. Accessed March 11, 2024. https://assets.website-files.com/615df23c67b201abbe36c0d7/64cbcc985cfd66c51f041917_meedan-annual-report-2022.pdf.
6. Tardáguila, Cristina. “Here Comes a Tool, Approved by WhatsApp, to Automate the Distribution of Fact-Checks.” Poynter, August 9, 2019. https://www.poynter.org/reporting-editing/2019/here-comes-a-tool-approved-by-whatsapp-to-automate-the-distribution-of-fact-checks/.
7.  Lynch, James. “Federal Government Gave $5.7 Million Grant to Meedan.” The Daily Caller, February 5, 2024. https://dailycaller.com/2024/02/05/federal-government-5-7-million-grant-nonprofit-misinformation-reporting-tool-private-messages-meedan/.
8. “Mission.” Meedan. Accessed March 11, 2024. https://meedan.com/mission.
9. “Meedan Inc, Full Filing – Nonprofit Explorer.” ProPublica. Accessed March 11, 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/204504068/202333109349301978/full.
10. [1] “Meedan Inc, Full Filing – Nonprofit Explorer.” ProPublica. Accessed March 11, 2024. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/204504068/202333109349301978/full.