Media Development Foundation

Established in April 2008 by a group of professional journalists, the Media Development Foundation, MDF, is a non-governmental, non-entrepreneurial (non commercial) organization aiming to promote: Fundamental human rights and freedoms; Open, inclusive and pluralistic society; Professional and institutional development of media; Establishment of media accountability and self-regulation mechanisms; Critical thinking in a new media ecosystem and resilience building of citizens’ through conscious media consumption; MDF launched its fact-checking and myth debunking platform - Myth Detector – in 2014, to uncover truth behind the lies, explore hidden agendas, raise the level of media literacy and inform both people and institutions of Georgia about the impacts of disinformation. Since November 2019, Myth Detector is a verified signature of the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) of the Poynter Institute, working alongside with 100 fact-checkers from more than 70 countries around the world and member of #CoronaVirusFacts Alliance and WhatsApp Coronavirus Information Hub. In September 2020, Myth Detector partnered up with Facebook to fight against misinformation in the framework of Facebook’s Third-Party Fact-Checking Program. Myth Detector reviews and rats the accuracy of content aiming to improve the quality and authenticity of stories in the News Feed. When rated false, Facebook shows the story lower in News Feed, significantly reducing its distribution and warning people who see the post or try to share the post that it has been marked as false. Facebook pays Myth Detector to perform this service for them but it has no say or influence over what Myth Detector fact-checks or what the conclusions are, nor does it want to. The Media Development Foundation, MDF, is a non-governmental organization aiming to promote: Fundamental human rights and freedoms; Open, inclusive and pluralistic society; Professional and institutional development of media; Establishment