About
Principles
The Global Disinformation Index is a global cross-sector coalition between governments, business and civil society. We operate on three core principles of neutrality, independence and transparency.
Neutrality: The GDI is non-political. The governing board consists of independent trustees with no commercial links to the media. Our Advisory Panel consists of international experts in disinformation, indices and technology.
Independence: The GDI is a UK not-for-profit organisation. Our funding comes from a range of sources including governmental, philanthropic and from companies. No single funding source makes up more than 33% of the total funding base.
Transparency: Our index methodology is published, and we will include the scores behind the ratings of all news domains rated. Our funders list will be continually updated online.
Team
Our team is made up of 15 experts from around the world, from Berlin to San Francisco. We are data scientists, data analysts, intelligence analysts, and researchers from a mix of backgrounds, including media, journalism, cybersecurity and adtech.
Founders
Alexandra Mousavizadeh
Alexandra has 20 years’ experience in index construction and data analysis. She recently oversaw the expansion of the Legatum Institute’s flagship publication, The Prosperity Index and all its bespoke metrics-based analysis and policy creation for governments and businesses. Prior roles include CEO of Arc Ratings, a global emerging markets based ratings agency; Sovereign Analyst for Moody’s and head of Country Risk Management, Morgan Stanley.
Clare Melford
Clare is an experienced CEO in the commercial and not for profit sectors. She is an expert in building and managing cross-sector coalitions. Clare was formerly CEO of the International Business Leaders Forum and MD of MTV Networks, Nordics. She has worked on start ups in e-commerce, fin-tech and ed-tech. Clare is a founding board member of Girls not Brides, the global coalition to end child marriage.
Dr. Daniel Rogers
Danny is a physicist, an author, and an expert in cryptography, cybercrime, disinformation, and security. He has published numerous patents, papers, and books on those and other subjects. Prior to co-founding both Terbium Labs and the Global Disinformation Index, Danny managed a portfolio of physics and sensor research projects at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Math and Physics from Georgetown University and a Doctorate in Chemical Physics from the University of Maryland. He currently teaches in the Cybercrime and Global Security Masters Program at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs and is a Security Fellow at the Truman Project on National Security.
Advisory Panel
Anne Applebaum
Professor in Practice and
Co-Director of Arena, LSE
Peter Pomerantsev
Co-Director of Arena, LSE
Miguel Martinez
Co-Founder and Chief Data Scientist, Signal Media
Supported By
FAQs
What is disinformation?
We define disinformation according to the verb to disinform, which means “to purposely and/or maliciously mislead by spreading inaccurate information (in terms of the content itself and the context).”
What is the difference between misinformation and disinformation?
Both terms refer to false or misleading information. But misinformation lacks the intent to deceive, whereas disinformation is deliberate deception, often malicious.
How does GDI assess the risk of disinformation?
The Index examines a range of neutral signals to flag the disinformation risk of a news domain. These signals include metadata and other observable factors. This rating is assessed using both artificial intelligence and human review. These processes are used to classify and rate the domains into different “at-risk” groups. For more details, please see our white paper [ link out]
How will the GDI risk ratings be used?
The ad tech industry, including advertisers, ad exchanges and platforms, can use these ratings to ensure ads for brands don’t appear on websites whose risk profile does not match their ad criteria. Ad exchanges will have real-time information on high-risk domains before placing ads on them. Social platforms and search engines will have a neutral assessment to make high-risk domains less visible on their platforms.
Who funds the GDI?
Our funding comes from a range of governmental, philanthropic and commercial sources. No single funding source makes up more than 33% of the total funding base. Our current funders are the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Luminate and Meedan.