In 2019, Karol Orzeł, the current editor-in-chief, started the fakenews.pl website. The website was originally supposed to be a kind of a loose blog addressing disinformation issues on the Internet and media. However, as it turned out very quickly, the scale of the problem was so large that a simple, one-man initiative occurred to be insufficient. Gradually, the project began to grow and gather new people. In 2020, the “Counteracting Disinformation” Foundation was established, one of the goals of which was to support initiatives revolved around the fakenews.pl portal and a complex fight against fake news and disinformation on the Internet.

Currently, the fakenews.pl team publishes several analyses per week, provides expert assistance for thematic events and shares knowledge during radio and television broadcasts. Our goals are the independence and transparency. We receive grants and funding only from organizations, which are able to guarantee in writing that they will not affect the content published on our website in any way. What is more, our editors must not belong to any political party and must declare full objectiveness while verifying the facts.

Our analyses have been quoted, among others, by the following Polish media: Onet, TVP Info, Gazeta Wyborcza, CyberDefence24, Geekweb, Focus, and Nesweek.

Our articles are also regularly quoted by Polish fact-checking websites, such as Konkret24, AFP Sprawdzam, and Demagog. Citations of our analyses can be also found on foreign such fact-checking websites as: Correctiv, Lindweiler, facta.news, and Mimikama.

Financing

2021

• A $19,000 grant from the U.S. Embassy in Poland to create a COVID-19 information hub and a series of educational materials related to the fight against disinformation.
• £5,000 grant from the Open Information Partnership organization. This grant was projected to investigate the activity of Russian propaganda in Poland. The grant ended in March 2021;
• Donations and patronite.pl – a total sum of about PLN 26,000.

2020

• A £20,000 grant from the Open Information Partnership organization. This grant was projected to the development of the foundation and the fakenews.pl portal. The grant ended in March 2021;
• Donations and patronite.pl – a total sum of about PLN 7,000.

2019

• 2019 was the year, when the fakenews.pl portal started its activity. For this reason, our initiative has not received any funding or grants.
• In November 2019, a crowdfunding account was launched on the patronite.pl portal. Therefore, in November 2019 and December 2019, a total of PLN 400 was collected. Financial settlements with patronite.pl can be found below.

Financial statements

Financial Statement – 2020 Financial Statement – 2021

Founding documents

Statute of the Foundation “Counteracting Disinformation”

Full information about the foundation

Foundation “Counteracting Disinformation”
KRS: 0000850583 NIP: 7252301561 REGON: 38666335900000

Account number: PL17114020040000310280273942