Fundación Maldita.es is a non-profit foundation based in Spain that builds public trust and fosters a healthy information ecosystem for all by fighting disinformation and promoting transparency through journalism, education, technology, research and policy action. Our multidisciplinary approach is rooted in evidence-based journalistic and investigative techniques supported by cutting edge and award-winning technological development that drives our educational, research and policy action in collaboration with a unique, extensive and international community of citizens, partners, and stakeholders. This pioneering and holistic response to disinformation is founded on an innovative, wide-ranging, and globally-recognised set of expertise that establishes us as a leading international reference in the fight against disinformation.

Our mission is to provide all actors affected—from legislators and digital platforms to journalists, citizens & educators— with tools, capacities, and evidence-based information so that they can make informed decisions, and together we can foster a more resilient, accessible, and trustworthy media & information ecosystem.  

As part of Fundación Maldita.es’ goal of strengthening the European fact-checking community through better cooperation, the CEO of Maldita.es currently holds the presidency of European Fact-Checking Network’s governance body. The EFCSN has made an effort to assist small fact-checking organisations by encouraging the development of technical capacity (such as the creation of enhanced databases) and skill sets (such as advocacy capabilities) to strengthen their contribution to the fight against disinformation.

Moreover, cooperation is one of the best practices for fact-checking, especially in times the context procokes disinformation to thrive. In the context of the 2024 European Parliamentary elections, Maldita.es participated in the EFCSN’s Elections24Check project, the first of its kind database that gathered and categorised fact-checked information for European countries and citizens ahead of the 2024 European elections. Maldita.es played a pivotal role in conceptualising and developing this project for the EFCSN. It led the effort to harmonise data across the community, engaging with partners to establish a common language and creating user-friendly tools for fact-checkers to efficiently collect and input data. Maldita.es was one of the main contributors to the database among over 40 European fact-checking organisations participating, providing 1 out of 10 pieces of content (debunks, prebunks, fact-checks, etc.) registered in the database as of the last day of the elections. With Maldita.es playing a key coordinating role, this project was successfully negotiated and implemented, alongside other EFCSN election-related initiatives such as the Meta AI project and the Climate initiative from the ECF.

Following its participation in the EFCSN’s Elections24Check project, Fundación Maldita.es elaborated an ex-post investigation to analyse the response of five very large online platforms to debunked disinformation registered in the Elections24Check database during the EU Election 2024, whose results were shared with Maldita.es’ stakeholders and in the press. Fundación Maldita.es also participated in a number of forums sharing their insights on fighting disinformation during the EU Elections such as the conference on “Disinformation, Media and the Future of the EU” with leading communication professionals, researchers and other experts on 27 May 2024, and the webinar “Separating voice from noise: Insights from the 2024 EP Elections” organised by Access Democracy and Democracy Reporting International on 27 June 2024. Using the data from the Elections24Check database, Maldita.es published a couple of articles on disinformation against institutions and on disinformation on migrants during the European elections.

At national level, Maldita.es provided fact-checking coverage for three regional electoral dates in Spain during 2024: Galicia, País Vasco and Cataluña.

Aside from efforts related to disinformation on elections, Fundación Maldita.es quickly reacted to the information crisis that followed the floods in Valencia and other eastern regions of Spain in November 2024. Over 110 articles were published debunking hoaxes and disinformation narratives around the natural disaster which did not only circulate in Spain but across many Member States. In addition, a reflection on the role of online platforms during this specific crisis was published and shared within the Task-Force.

On a different note, Fundación Maldita.es has also aimed to foster the cooperation and dialogue among the Code’s Signatories through the organization of the event “Disinformation in the EU 2024-2029: Challenges for a New Term” in which topics such as the conversion of the Code were discussed among representatives of the Task-Force.

Apart from all this, Maldita.es continued its collaboration with the Information Sharing and Analysis Center on Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI-ISAC), a group of like-minded organisations that engage in protecting democratic societies, institutions, and the critical information infrastructures of democracy from external manipulation and harm.