Meedan

Meedan is a technology not-for-profit organization focused on strengthening journalism, media literacy, fact-checking, and access to reliable information online and offline. Founded by Ed Bice in 2005 and incorporated as a nonprofit charitable organization in 2006, Meedan developed from an effort to create a digital gathering place where people separated by language, culture, geography, or ideology could exchange information and engage in dialogue. The organization takes its name from an Arabic word meaning “gathering place” or “town square,” reflecting its emphasis on communication across communities. Meedan’s work combines software development, research, training, and programmatic partnerships. Its central technology platform, Check, is open-source software for content annotation, verification, and fact-checking. Check can be used to operate tip lines on services such as WhatsApp and other encrypted or closed messaging platforms. Individuals can forward potentially misleading messages to participating fact-checking organizations, which can then organize claims, coordinate review, and return explanatory responses. The platform’s first major deployment was connected with Electionland, a large collaborative reporting initiative led by ProPublica during the 2016 United States election. The project used coordinated reporting and verification to track claims about voting problems. The organization has also built tools and services for multilingual communication. Meedan.net, launched in 2009, was an Arabic-English forum and media-sharing project that combined machine and human translation. It aggregated news, commentary, and other sources while allowing users to add articles and comments, with translations mirrored between the two languages. Earlier translation research included a 2006 partnership with IBM’s Watson Research Group and work on machine-assisted translation tools, including IBM Transbrowser. In 2015, Meedan developed Bridge, a social-media translation tool that combined automated translation with human contribution. Meedan’s public-interest work extends into health information. Its Health Desk service connects journalists, fact-checkers, and media organizations with public-health expertise and accessible explanations of difficult or rapidly changing health topics. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Desk hosted a COVID-19 Vaccine Media Hub intended to help reporters and verification organizations find evidence and expert guidance while covering vaccines and public-health claims. The organization also runs training, research, and coalition programs for citizen journalists, activists, journalism students, civil-society groups, human-rights defenders, and professional newsrooms. Meedan has participated in work on credibility indicators, diverse human feedback for artificial-intelligence systems, election information, disaster response, and public-health communication. In 2024, it received a Skoll Award for Social Innovation, with recognition tied to work involving more than 50 newsrooms and fact-checking organizations and support for 18 election and public-health coalitions worldwide, including partnerships related to elections in Mexico, India, and the United States. Meedan is not a listed commercial company and does not publish conventional consumer-brand financial or market data. Its identity is instead associated with civic technology: open-source infrastructure, collaborative verification, multilingual communication, and programs intended to make the internet more equitable. Ed Bice served as chief executive until retiring from that role in November 2025 and remains on the board; Dr. Dima Saber is the current Executive Director.

Meedan began in 2005 as an initiative founded by Ed Bice to explore how online social technology could support dialogue across linguistic, cultural, and ideological boundaries. Its name comes from an Arabic term associated with a gathering place or town square. The founding concept treated translation, conversation, and collaborative media participation as tools for improving understanding and tolerance between communities. Meedan was formally incorporated as a nonprofit charitable organization in 2006. An early part of the organization’s work involved translation technology. In 2006, Meedan entered a research partnership with IBM’s Watson Research Group to investigate machine translation and machine-augmented translation. The work included tools intended to let users improve translations collaboratively and experiments such as IBM Transbrowser, which created a translation layer for web content. Meedan.net, launched in 2009, became the organization’s first major public-facing project. It provided a bilingual Arabic-English forum for discussion and media sharing, aggregating reporting, opinion, blogs, and mainstream sources about world events. Users could contribute articles and comments, while machine and human translation helped mirror material between the two languages. The project was later highlighted in the New York Times Magazine’s 2008 “Year in Ideas” issue, reflecting interest in its approach to cross-language online conversation. Meedan subsequently expanded into social-media translation, developing Bridge in 2015. The application allowed users to follow topics or accounts and initiate translations of social posts, combining automated translation with human review or contribution. The organization’s focus increasingly moved toward information verification and newsroom support. Its Check platform was designed as open-source infrastructure for fact-checking, content annotation, and structured review of claims. Check supported tip lines on services including WhatsApp, allowing people to submit suspicious messages to fact-checking organizations. Its first major use was associated with Electionland, a ProPublica-led collaborative reporting project that tracked voting-related claims during the 2016 United States election. Meedan also developed Health Desk to connect journalists, fact-checkers, and media organizations with public-health professionals and clear summaries of complex health topics. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the service hosted a Vaccine Media Hub to support reporting and verification related to rapidly changing vaccine evidence and public discussion. Alongside its software, Meedan has conducted training, research, and coalition work. Its programs have supported citizen journalists, activists, students, civil-society organizations, human-rights defenders, newsrooms, and fact-checkers. The organization co-founded the Credibility Indicators Working Group with Hacks/Hackers, which investigated ways to define, test, annotate, and evaluate indicators of journalistic credibility. Meedan also supported research on diverse human feedback for artificial-intelligence models; the resulting paper later received a best-paper award in the datasets and benchmarks track at NeurIPS 2024. By 2024, Meedan reported work with more than 50 newsrooms and fact-checking organizations and support for 18 election and public-health coalitions worldwide. Its projects included information partnerships connected with elections in Mexico, India, and the United States, as well as work related to disaster response and public health. That year, Meedan received a Skoll Award for Social Innovation. In November 2025, founder Ed Bice retired as chief executive while remaining on the board, and Dr. Dima Saber became the organization’s Executive Director. Meedan continues to present itself as a public-interest technology organization pursuing a more equitable internet through open-source tools, collaborative verification, multilingual access, and digital-literacy programming.

• 2025

  Leadership transition

  [1]Meedanen.wikipedia.org

  Ed Bice retired as chief executive in November and continued as a board director; Dr. Dima Saber became Executive Director.

• 2024

  Skoll Award for Social Innovation

  [1]Meedanen.wikipedia.org

  Meedan received a Skoll Award recognizing its public-interest information, journalism, election, and health-coalition work.

• 2020

  Health Desk supports COVID-19 vaccine reporting

  [1]Meedanen.wikipedia.org

  Health Desk hosted a COVID-19 Vaccine Media Hub to provide journalists and fact-checkers with evidence and public-health expertise.

• 2016

  Check used with Electionland

  [1]Meedanen.wikipedia.org

  Meedan’s Check platform received its first major deployment through Electionland, a collaborative project tracking claims about voting problems in the United States.

• 2015

  Bridge developed

  [1]Meedanen.wikipedia.org

  Meedan built Bridge, a tool for translating social-media posts through a combination of automated and human translation.

• 2009

  Meedan.net launches

  [1]Meedanen.wikipedia.org

  The organization launched an Arabic-English forum and media-sharing service using a combination of machine and human translation.

• 2006

  Nonprofit incorporation and IBM research partnership

  [1]Meedanen.wikipedia.org

  Meedan was incorporated as a charitable nonprofit and began translation-related research with IBM’s Watson Research Group.

• 2005

  Meedan founded

  [1]Meedanen.wikipedia.org

  Ed Bice founded Meedan as an initiative focused on cross-cultural dialogue, information exchange, and the use of social technology to improve understanding.

A civic-technology and public-interest information organization that combines open-source software, collaborative verification, multilingual communication, and training to support journalism, media literacy, and information equity.

• Fact-checking and content-annotation platform

  Check

  Check is Meedan’s open-source platform for organizing fact-checking, content annotation, verification workflows, and responses to claims. It can support tip lines on messaging services such as WhatsApp, allowing users to forward suspicious or questionable material to participating fact-checking organizations. Reviewers can structure incoming claims, coordinate research, and communicate explanatory findings. The platform’s first major use was connected with Electionland during the 2016 United States election.

• Public-health information service

  Health Desk

  Health Desk is a Meedan service that connects journalists, fact-checkers, and media organizations with public-health professionals and accessible explanations of difficult health topics. It is designed for reporting environments in which scientific evidence changes quickly or technical concepts need to be translated into clear public information. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Health Desk hosted a Vaccine Media Hub focused on evidence and expert support for vaccine coverage.

• Bilingual media and discussion platform · 2009

  Meedan.net

  Meedan.net was an Arabic-English forum for cross-language discussion and media sharing. It aggregated blogs, reporting, opinion, and other sources about world events, while allowing users to contribute articles and comments. Its distinctive feature was the use of machine and human translation to mirror material between Arabic and English, helping participants exchange views across language communities.

• Social-media translation tool · 2015

  Bridge

  Bridge was a Meedan-developed application for translating social-media content. Users could follow topics or accounts and start a translation when they encountered a post they wanted to make accessible to another language community. The service combined human participation with machine translation, including automated translation supplied through Bing.

• Health-information media resource · 2020

  COVID-19 Vaccine Media Hub

  The COVID-19 Vaccine Media Hub was hosted through Health Desk to help journalists and fact-checking organizations report on vaccine evidence, expert perspectives, and changing public-health information during the COVID-19 pandemic.

• 2024Election and public-health coalitions

  Mexico · India · United States · International

  Meedan supported election and public-health coalitions and partnered with organizations working on elections, disaster response, and public information.

  Outcome. The work contributed to Meedan’s recognition with a 2024 Skoll Award for Social Innovation.

  Source
• 2020COVID-19 Vaccine Media Hub

  International

  Meedan used Health Desk to provide a trusted evidence and expert resource for journalists and fact-checkers covering COVID-19 vaccines.

  Outcome. The hub supported reporting and verification during a period of rapidly changing scientific and public-health information.

  Source
• 2016Electionland

  United States

  Meedan’s Check platform supported Electionland, a ProPublica-led collaborative reporting effort involving a large network of participants tracking claims and reports of voting problems on Election Day.

  Outcome. The project provided a major early deployment for Check and demonstrated the use of structured tip-line and verification workflows in election reporting.

  Source

• 2025

  Change in executive leadershipOther

  Background

  After two decades leading the organization, founder Ed Bice retired from the chief executive role.

  Action taken

  Bice remained on Meedan’s board, while Dr. Dima Saber became Executive Director.

  Aftermath

  The transition moved day-to-day executive leadership from the founder to a new executive director while preserving Bice’s board involvement.

  Source

• 2020

  Expand into public-health information supportStrategy

  Background

  The COVID-19 pandemic created urgent demand for reliable, comprehensible health information and expert support for journalists and verification organizations.

  Action taken

  Meedan used Health Desk to host a COVID-19 Vaccine Media Hub and provide access to evidence and public-health expertise.

  Aftermath

  Public-health communication became a significant part of Meedan’s information-integrity and newsroom-support portfolio.

  Source

• 2016

  Deploy Check through ElectionlandProduct launch

  Background

  Electionland required coordinated collection and verification of reports about voting access and election-related problems.

  Action taken

  Meedan used Check to support tip-line, claim-management, and verification processes in the collaborative reporting project.

  Aftermath

  The deployment became Check’s first major use and helped establish Meedan’s focus on open-source infrastructure for fact-checking and journalism.

  Source

• 2015

  Develop Bridge for social-media translationProduct launch

  Background

  Social-media users increasingly encountered information across language boundaries, while automated translation alone often required human interpretation or correction.

  Action taken

  Meedan created Bridge, allowing users to select social posts for translation and combine machine-generated output with human contribution.

  Aftermath

  Bridge extended Meedan’s multilingual mission from a dedicated bilingual forum into social-media workflows.

  Source

• 2006

  Pursue machine-augmented translation researchStrategy

  Background

  Meedan’s founding objective required practical ways for people separated by language to exchange information and participate in shared conversations.

  Action taken

  The organization partnered with IBM’s Watson Research Group and explored machine and machine-assisted translation tools, including collaborative improvement of translations.

  Aftermath

  The research established multilingual communication as an early pillar of Meedan’s public-interest technology work and informed later projects such as Meedan.net and Bridge.

  Source

1. 1Meedanen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Meedan official websitemeedan.com