MEDDEM/orgs – meddemlab

The MEDDEM/orgs database features 50 so-called Counter Influence Organizations from Germany, which are initiatives that work against anti-democratic influences and movements. These organizations focus on fact-checking, increasing the quality of information, and combating discrimination and hate speech. Thereby, an attempt is made to limit the influence of ideas that endanger democracy.

The database was developed as part of the bachelor thesis of Julia Wagner, a bachelor student of the OTH Regensburg. It is inspired by the databases of the CredCatalogue and especially by the Partnership for Countering Influence Operations (PCIO) von Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. For transparency, the funding of the organizations is also presented to enable a critical evaluation of the organizations in the database.

Name	Type	Funding	Terminology	Organization/ project focus	Description
Correctiv	Civil society	Donations by individuals, institutions and foundations	Misinformation, disinformation, fact check	Investigative journalism, fact checking, supporting public media literacy	Correctiv does intensive research on topics of public interest, regularly publishes fact-checked articles on Facebook and engages in education concerning media literacy through offering projects in schools and educational material for teachers.
Zebra	Media	Landesanstalt für Medien NRW	Fake news	Countering disinformation through public education	Zebra is a project of the media institution “Landesanstalt für Medien NRW”. They initiated an online platform where questions concerning media can be asked and which will be answered anonimously.
Facts for friends	Civil society	Bundesministerium für Bildung, Björn Steiger foundation and others	Fake news, fact check, misinformation	Fackt-checking	Facts for friends provides a collection of so called “fact-snacks” to current topics on their website, that expose disinformation and conspiracy theories to topics of public interest. These are composed of research by individual fact checkers, that work for the company, in combination with content of approved, international fact-checking operations.
Demokratie Leben!	Governmental	Bundesministerium für Familie, Senioren, Frauen und Jugend (BMFSFJ)	Hate speech, fake news	Supporting democracy, prevention of radicalization and extremism, fact-checking, prevention of mis/disinformation	Demokratie Leben! is a program of the german federal ministery for family afairs, senior citizens, seniors and youth. They offer educational projects in schools and youth associations and financally support topic related projects.
Antidiskriminierungsnetzwerk Berlin (ADNB)	Civil society	LADS (Landesanstalt für Gleichbehandlung – gegen Diskriminierung)	Discrimination	First aid and contactpoint for victims of rassicm	The ADNB offers first aid facing rassicm experiences in the fields of law, emotional support, documentation and public relations. Counseling can be done via e-mail, phone-call or in person. Further they also focus on education on the topic through offering workshops, events and seminars.
Das Nettz	Civil society	Robert Bosch foundation, Betterplace LAB, Better place.org, BMFSFJ	Hate speech	Uniting activists, projects and organisations fighting against hate speech	The organization founded a website, which helps to connect individual activists, organizations or projects who engage against hate speech. With that, das Nettz hopes to increase the range of influence. Their website offers information materical concerning the topic and further ressources for sharing experiences.
open knowledge foundation Deutschland	Civil society	BMBF (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung), several foundations, individual donations, govermental ministeries and foundations	Open data, open knowledge	Supporting democracy and access to information, data literacy	The open knowledge foundation designs software instruments that makes public access to information easier and teaches about an ethical use of technology. They also offer support to open source projects, publish studies about topics of interest, research about the effect of open data and provide IT-courses for students.
unfuq.de	Civil society	BMFSFJ, Demokratie Leben!, Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb), donations	Radicalization, discrimination, Islamism	Education about the religion of Islam, preventing radicalization and extremism, empowerment and supporting confidence of teenagers	Unfuqu.de educates the public about Islam, by conducting numerous workshops and projects for students and people that are interested. They support teachers by providing educational material. A lot of information and ressources can be found on their website.
Heinrich Böll Stiftung e.v	Civil society	EU-, and German governement grants	Green politics, democracy, non-violence, solidarity	Ecological sustainability, democracy, humann rights and equality	The foundation’s main focus lays on ecological sustainability, green energy and protection of the environment. But they support and participate in other projects concerning gender equality, anti-discrimination and pro-democracy as well. Their projects are various and numerous and include media coverage on related topics, online events, political research, educational material and many more.
Hate Aid	Civil society	Currently funded by govermental aid (BMFSJ and BMJV), longterm goal: self-funding	Digital violence	Equality and free speech, hate speech	Hate aid supports victims of hate speech emotionally, legally and financially (concerning legal expenses). Further they developped an app for easy access to their support systems. The organization also works on sensitizing the public for hate speech and cyberbullying. Hate Aid gives advice and guidance to political authorities concerning the topic.
Gesicht zeigen!	Civil society	BMFSFJ, Demokratie Leben!, bpb and other federal agencies, Nemetschek Stiftung, Deutsche Bahn, Telekom	Racism, anti-Semitism, discrimination	Countering discrimination	Gesicht zeigen! supports projects that engage in countering rassicm and aim to prevent any kind of discrimination. Providing educational material and games on their website for people of every age group, they help to inform about discrimination and related topics. Gesicht zeigen! also offers workshops, expert talks, launches campaigns and trainings for experts.
#Faktenfuchs	Media	BR24	Disinformation, false reports (no use of the term “fake news” because of its political componence)	Fact-checking	The “Faktenfuchs” is the fact-checking initiative of the news organization BR24. Topics depend on public interest and follower suggestions. Lead by a small team of editors the Faktenfuchs fact-checks specific information and publishes the findings on the BR24 website with the note “#Faktenfuchs”.
DW Faktencheck	Media	ARD	Misinformation, disinformation, fake news	Fact-checking	fact checks to popular topics are conducted by the DW fact-checking team and uploaded on the channels website.
Faktencheck Gesundheit	Civil society	Initiative of the Bertelsmann Stiftung	Fact check	Fact-checking on health related topics and the german health care system	The overall goal of the initiative is to expose weaknesses of the german helath care system, by explaining complex processes and connections to the regular citizen and therefore creating pressure to change. Additionally, they also frequently publish fact checks on common helath realted issues and illnesses.
Deutsche Vertretung der Europäischen Beobachtungsstelle für digitale Medien (European Digital Media Observatory)	Governmental	European Union	Disinformation	Fact-checking, academic research	The European Digitial Media Observatory (EDMO) is an initiative of the European Comission to fight disinformation in Europe, by providing fact-checking services and research. They are uniting experts from various fields to better understand disinformation and develop tools to fight it. EDMO offers webinars, confrences and events to train future fact checkers and inform the European public about the topic.
Wafana	Civil society	Membership fees, other services	Mis-, and disinformation	B2B fact-checking agency	Wafana is a fackt-checking organization that offers its services to German newspapers and other organizations. Further, the company engages in education and the development of new fact-checking software.
stimmtdas.org	Civil society	Self-funded, donations	False statements	Fact-checking statements of politicians	Stimmt das.org uses historical and scientific sources to fact check statements of politicians. What statements are going to be checked is dependent on the media attention they get. The organization came up with a transparent classification system. The statements are therefore not marked as true or false only, but can be put into 10 different classes, ranging from deffinetly correct to absolutely wrong.
Reporter ohne Grenzen	Civil society	Donations, membership fees	Censorship, freedom of the press	Promoting the freedom of the press, fighting against cencorship	The organization offers general help, financial support and legal documentation to journalists who are threatened by censorship or even violence because of their work all around the work .
Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Bundes	Governmental	BMFSFJ	Discrimination	Education about discrimination	On the official website the initiative publishes various information concerning all kinds of discrimination in regular-, as well as easier understandable German, English or Arabic. Special focus is put on the law context, informing victims about their legal rights and possibilities. Further the Antidiskriminierungsstelle des Bundes engages in research concerning the topic and frequently reports to the federal Government (every four years).
Amira	Civil society	Behörde für Arbeit, Gesundheit, Soziales, Familie und Integration	Discrimination	Counseling for victims of discrimination	Amira offers individual counceling concering legal rights for victims of discrimination. This includes support and conduct of mediation talks. Further, empowerment and information workshops are held in schools and other social facilities.
Stiftung Leben ohne Rassismus	Civil society	ARIC (Anti Rassismus Informationszentrum) NRW e.V	Discrimination, racism	Applying the general equality/ anti- discrimination law in Germany	As the general equality/ anti- discrimination law from 2006 is young it is the organization’s overall goal to bring as many test cases to court as possible to increase public awareness. Stiftung Leben ohne Rassismus catalogs individual cases of discrimination and offers financial help to some concerning the legal process. Further cases that succeed in court are published with the victims permission.
AWO-Spi GmbH	Civil society	Membership fees, public money of the state, donations	Integration, social exclusion	Intercultural understanding, democracy support	AWO Spi offers many different projects and strategies to support democracy and the civil society in general. Language courses for example and educational programs concerning various topics like media literacy or digital competences. A special focus seems to lay on successfull migration and refugees’ support. The projects include counseling for migrants, empowerment courses for female refugees and even a womens shelter for refugees.
bfdt: Bündnis für Demokratie und Toleranz gegen Extremismus und Gewalt	Governmental	Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb)	Democracy and tolerance	Democracy support, extremism and violence prevention, tolerance	The organization is part of the federal agency of civic education of Germany (bpb) and aims to connect as many German projects as possible that work on related topics, disregarding size or popularity. Bfdt acts as contact point and mediator, coordinating forces and getting press involved to attract public attention and awareness for certain projects.
Tolerantes Sachsen	Civil society	Weltoffenes Sachsen; Ministerium für Soziales, Familie und Gesundheit Sachsen	Inequality, racism, anti-Semitism	Democracy support, rassicm, anti-Semitism	Tolerantes Sachsen aims to connect as many initiatives as possible in Saxony that focus on similar topics of democracy, support and countering discrimination. The network provides topic related information on their website for educational purposes. They offer counseling services, workshops and conferences, research fundraising and project planning. Further Tolerantes Sachsen gives topic related organizations a platform to communicate and collaborate.
Xenos Integration und Vielfalt	Governmental	Bundesministerium für Arbeit und Soziales, european social fund for Germany	Exclusion and discrimination	Integration, intercultural understanding, discrimination	The program ran from 2008-2014 and worked together with German initiatives that focus on countering discrimination in the workplace, in school or in administration. The aim was to integrate teenagers and young grown-ups with migration background into the German job market and society. Xenos supported topic related programs and inititatives that came up with promising concepts and methods to integrate the target audience.
ARD- Faktenfinder	Media	ARD	Rumors and false reports, fact check, disinformation	Fact-checking	The ARD Faktenfinder is an initiative of the most popular German news show “Tagesschau”. The fact-checking team does research on current topics to uncover all kinds of disinformation. Research results are published on their website where disinformation is marked and corrected.
dpa Faktencheck	Media	dpa	Claims	Fact-checking	Dpa Faktencheck publishes frequently fact-checks on topics of public interest in form of articles. Those are constructed in three parts: The disinformative thesis, the actual facts and based on those, the validity rating of the orginal thesis by the fact-checking team.
HOAXmap neues aus der Gerüchteküche	Civil society	None	False reports, rumors	Deconstruction and organization of disinformation that ist spread about refugees in germany	On the initiative’s website one can find the “Hoaxmap” of Germany, where all incidents of disinformation concerning refugees are tagged. For each incident several quality-researched articles are linked that are unraveling the truth behind those accusations. This is done to keep track of incidents where refugees are wrongly accused in Germany and make the amount visible.
Floskelwolke	Civil society	Privately founded	Right-wing extremism	Media analysis and criticism, desinformation, creating a databank with a collection of so called “Floskeln” (hackneyed phrases)	The initiative came up with an algorithm that scans German mediawebsites on often used hackneyed phrases and ranks them according to frequency. Afterwards those phrases are catagorized on the Floskelwolke website. The first category describes phrases that are used very often, but do not cause demage to the actual content. In the second category unclear phrases are placed that could be misleading or demaging to journalistic credibility. The third category marks clearly propagandistic and manipulative phrases.
EJO European journalism observatory	Civil society	Stiftung Pressehaus, Robert Bosch foundation, Swiss National Science Foundation, Fondazione Fidinam, Fondazione per il Corriere del Ticino	Freedom of the press, independent journalism	Connecting journalism research and practice in Europe, support professionalism and freedom of the press	The EJO is a network of 13 independent non-profit media institutes in 11 countries (two in German). It aims to provide a dialogue between media researchers and practicioners. The EJO provides accessible, multilingual news and analysis on its own website for journalists. Furthermore, workshops and conferences concerning an open, international exchange of researchers are offered.
Lie Detectors kritisches Denken	Civil society	Wyss Stiftung	Digitale Desinformation, verzerrte Fakten, Propaganda, manipulative information, Falschmeldungen, Falschinformationen	Education concerning disinformation, digital media competences	The project is active in German, Belgian, Swiss and Austrian schools. Their goal is to sensibilize teachers and students to disinformation. Lie dectors offers educational measures for schools. Their offer amongst others contains expert talks and workshops which are supposed to create a contact between journalists, students and teachers. The initiative also engages in connecting school media projects all over Europe.
Mimikama	Civil society	Revenues, donations	False news, fakes, disinformation, hoaxes, fake news	Fact-checking, exposing disinformation and online manipulation	On their website and social media channels Mimikama posts research reports and analysis on online spread disinformation. Further, on Mimikamas website a feature is presented, where they answer users questions concerning the topic or their work in general.
EU vs. Disinformation	Governmental	European Union	Disinformation	Counteracting Russias disinformation campaigns	Eu vs. Disinformation is an initiative by the European East StratCom Task force. They do data analysis and media monitoring in 15 languages to identify, compile and expose disinformation orginating in pro-Kremlin media, that are spread across Europe. The database is updated every week. Further, they offer briefings and training to European institutions and organizations and publish articles concerning the topic frequently.
Amadeo Antonio Stiftung	Civil society	BMFSFJ, Freudenbergstiftung, Dreilinden, donations	Hate speech	Education in countering hate speech, protection of data privacy	The organization offers eight different workshops to educate society in the topics of hate speech, data privacy protection and the dangers of social media. Further, they financially support topic relatied projects and initiatives.
BR-Social Listening und Verifikation	Media	Bayerischer Rundfunk	Fake news	Fact-checking	The two person fact checking team exposes and marks disinformation on their social media channels and the website of the BR.
Der Volksverpetzer	Civil society	Donations only	Fake news, terror	Exposing disinformation on social media in creative ways	This organization differentiates from other fact-checking sites by making disinformation look ridiculous. The, with wit and satire written columns and articles, pulished on the Volksverpetzer’s website, expose disinformation in an amusing way, instead of presenting dry facts only.
schwäbische.de: Fakenews enttarnt	Media	Schwäbische Zeitung	Fake news, conspiracy Theories	Exposing disinformation concerning the corona virus	Fact checks are uploaded on the newspaper’s website concerning disinformation about the corona virus. Readers can send in topic suggestions, or articles that they suspect to contain disinformation.
wahre Welle tv (a project by Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung )	Governmental	Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb)	Conspiracy Theories	Satirical exposure of conspiracy theories	The federal agency of civic education of Germany started this project in 2018. It was advertised with several videos that announced the launch of a new online TV channel (Wahre Welle TV) on social media. This new channel was supposed to “finally expose the truth to the German people”. The public interest was high. Then videos were posted that picked up on common conspiracy theories in a satiric way, combined with actual facts. No more videos were shared afterwards, but on the website of bpb information about the project is shared, along with general educational content on disinformation.
Lobby Control	Civil society	Donations, membership fees, endowments	Lobbying, democratic control, transparency	Education about lobbying	Lobby Control educates about political gray areas, power structures and measures to secure political transperancy. They offer a combination of research and economical analysis. On their website one can find various articles and reports concerning topics like politician’s ancillary revenues and funding of political parties.
Haus des Erinnerns	Civil society	BMFSFJ, Bundesprogram Demokratie Leben!	Extremism, neo-fascism	Rememberance of Germanys Nazi- dictatorship past, counterinfluence extremism and neofashism	Das Haus des Erinnerns represents the documentation of Germany’s dark past in various forms. They offer presentations, themed city tours, workshops and other events to educate juvenilles and intersted adults about the topic.
ISD Bund	Civil society	Nord-Süd Brücken foundation, Demokratie Leben!, BMFSFJ, donations	Discrimination, disadvantage, exploitation	Supporting black peoples interests	The organization aims to improve living conditions for black people in Germany. A special focus lays on black children and teenagers. Further, they organize educational projects, workshops and expert talks concerning the topic to create communities all over Germany. The ISD Bund also established an online platform called “Afronetz”. There, black people and other democracy supporting organizations can connect and discuss political, economical and cultural topics in a safe place.
Migrationsrat Berlin	Civil society	“Demokratie Leben”! (BMFSFJ), donations	Equality and participation	Integration, intercultural understanding, discrimination	Migrationsrat Berlin is a network of 70 smaller organizations that support people that migrated to Germany. The overall goal is to help them integrate and feel welcomed . They offer something called “hardship case counseling” for people that are immediately threatened of deportation. Further, the Migrationsrat represents their interests at the federal level.
Kompetenznetzwerk: Antisemitismus (KOMPAS)	Civil society	“Demokratie Leben”! (BMFSFJ)	Anti-Semitism	Documentation of anti-Semitic rassicm, education	The organization consists of five institutions that work on the prevention and education of anti-Semitism. They offer educational material on their website, host frequent expert talks and conduct research projects. The most important activity of the Kompetenznetzwerk is counseling of victims and the documentation of anti-Semitic incidents and crimes.
Stiftung EVZ (Erinnerung, Verantwortung, Zukunft)	Civil society	Bundesministerium für Finanzen (BMF), donations	Anti-Semitism, racism	Commitment to NS victims, refurbishing of German history, human rights advocation	The organization offers several projects for educational and preventional purposes like exhibitions and workshops. Further, financial support for topic related projects is an option. In June 2021 a new educational initiative (Bildungsagenda NS-Unrecht) was started, because of the current accumulation of anti-Semitic movements and crimes in Germany.
adis.ev	Civil society	Freundenberg Stiftung, donations	Discrimination	Counter discrimination, victims support and empowerment, education	Adis.ev operates in Baden Wurttemberg and focuses mostly on victims of discrimination. Therfore, they offer single-, and group counseling. For educational purposes of the younger generation, the organization provides workshops, events, material and projects for schools.
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung	Civil society	Federal government budget (SPD)	Democracy, solidarity	Freedom, equality, solidarity, helping society shape democracy, political education and counceling	The Friedrich Ebert Stiftung has 15 locations in Germany and 108 foreign offices all around the world. Their main focus lies on education and supporting scientific research. The organization is especially known for scholarships they give to university students. Further, they offer access to an international connected think tank to impulse political debates and research.
SWR3 Faktencheck	Media	SWR	Lies, fake news, conspiracy theories, false reports	Fact-checking	On their website SW3 frequently publishes articles that discuss current conspiracy theories and topics of public interest in general, that are connected to disinformation.
Fri Ent (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Frieden und Entwicklung)	Civil society	EU funding	Peacebuilding	Supporting national and international peace and development, intercultural understanding	FriEnt is an association of eight public, church related and civil societal organizations and networks that focus on building and supporting peace and development around the globe. FriEnt hosts expert talks and projects concerning their topics of interest. Also they developed the so called “Peacebuilding forum” , an international platform where political topics can be discussed and partnerships and collaboration are initiated.
advd (Antidiskriminierungsverband Deutschland)	Civil society	BMFSFJ; Bundesministerium des Innern, Heimat und Bau	Discrimination	Countering discrimination, victims support and empowerment, education	Advd is a network of 24 German anti-discrimination organizations. The goal is to support a national structure countering discrimination in Germany. They offer victims counseling, support and educational material. Further the organization aims to represent their topics on a public and political level.
Hans Bredow Institut (HBI), Leibniz Institut für Medienforschung	Academia	Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung; Behörde für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Gleichstellung (BWFG); Donations; project earnings	Discrimination	Research concerning communication and media	The organization focuses on long-term research concerning shifts in communication and media and what effects those changes have on society and behaviour patterns of individuals. HBI is working on various scientific questions. They conduct studies that focus on the public’s stand on media literacy, or investigate media performance in general. The goal is to give the best scientific expertise that can be used in a political, economical, or legal context. Further, they host expert talks and events concerning important topics like disinformation and digital rights.

You can find more detailed information about the meaning of individual columns here in the Codebook.

Last database update: February, 2022