This European award recognizes Maldita.es’ innovative approach to tackling disinformation in private messaging channels. The jury that granted the award included former editor-in-chief of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger; deputy editor of Süddeutsche Zeitung, Alexandra Föderl-Schmid; deputy director of Eldiario.es, Juan Luis Sánchez; editorial director of Le Monde, Sylvie Kauffmann; and freelance journalist Sheila Sitalsing.
The award has been presented annually since 2012 to celebrate the greatest achievements in European journalism. This year, it received more than 1,000 submissions from 47 countries, the highest number in its history. The competition is organized by several European foundations, including The Guardian Foundation, The Politiken Foundation, Agora Foundation, Media Development Investment Fund, The Jyllands-Posten Foundation, The Irish Times Trust Limited, The Thomson Reuters Foundation, Stichting Democratie & Media, Vereniging Veronica and Luminate.
About our WhatsApp chatbot
In July 2020, in the middle of the pandemic, we launched our WhatsApp chatbot to automate the process of receiving reports from our community about potential disinformation and providing responses. This system also allows us to collect, classify, track and analyze disinformation to better understand how it spreads.
This enables our journalists to better serve the community and bring users closer to quality journalism and reliable information. The automated chatbot allows users to verify suspicious content in video, audio, image or text format, as well as receive media literacy content. Users can also request a written or audio summary of the latest fact-checks.
This recognition has only been possible thanks to the joint effort of Maldita.es and the technology company Wealize, as well as the support of our community. In just one year, this has allowed us to receive more than 108,000 pieces of content for verification and send over 400,000 messages.
If you want to use our chatbot and help us fight disinformation, you can contact us via WhatsApp at +34 644 22 93 19. You can report potential hoaxes circulating and, if they have already been verified by our team, you will receive the debunk instantly. If you are not yet part of our community, you can join through this link.