The self appointed, Global Disinformation Index (GDI) non-profit organisation launched its website around March 11, 2018, but registerd  but incorprated the UK-based entity on April 7, 2018. It established 2 affiliates in the use in Nov. 2018 and Sept. 2020 respectively.  Their stated mission is to “Restore trust in the media by providing real-time automated risk ratings of the world’s media sites through a Global Disinformation Index.” [1, 2]

Their “Prototype Funding” round closing April 30, 2018, and by 2019 they were supported by: Knight Foundation, USAID, Luminate, the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office and Article 19 [3, 4, 5, 6] Luminate was established in 2018 by philanthropists Pierre and Pam Omidyar, and curiously in 2017 they partnered with Knight Foundation to “research artificial intelligence for the public interest”.

The archives lists the co-founders as:

  • Alexandra Mousavizadeh – CEO of Decima Global [an obsucure company, that doesn’ really exist, and is not mentioned in her LinkedIn]
  • Clare Melford of 9 Degrees and former managing director of MTV Network
  • Miguel Martinez – Chief Data Scientist, Signal – REF
  • Dr. Daniel Rogers of Terbium Labs & Veracity.ai (He appears to be added as co-founder in June 2018)

In October 2018, Mousavizadeh was a speaker at the second United Nations World Data Forum in Dubai.

On April 13, 2021 The GDI submitted a report to the United Nations 47th session of the Human Rights Council, who called  for “Reports on Disinformation” – where they state the “GDI’s goal is to catalyse industry to reduce disinformation and its harms by going after the financial incentives to create disinformation….primarily by primarily by seeking to defund disinformation – breaking the incentive to
create it for the purpose of garnering advertising revenues…” [Disinformation Resolution passed at the 66th UN GA January 2022]

UNESCO state “GDI provides disinformation risk ratings for news sites in media markets around the globe.” Who’s risk ratings are neutral, independent and transparent”, but conservative media appear to be their target and they maybe violating the law. [7]