NewsCord raises £250k to keep countering media bias

NewsCord is one of the first projects of our incubator and today we get to celebrate the team’s £250k funding round.

It started as a website and app that analyzes and exposes the bias between different media sources to help people learn what is really happening in Palestine. Since then, it has expanded to cover issues beyond the Palestine-Israel issue, where highlighting media bias is just as important. It has also become an essential tool used by researchers, journalists, and various media figures to carry out their work.

Recently NewsCord launched an email complaint page. They carefully assess situations as they arise, determine who should be held accountable, and ensure that users can send complaints in just a few clicks. Tens of thousands of emails were sent in just two months. As a result, the BBC issued a retraction regarding an anti-Muslim campaign, and Royal Mail issued a correction because they had stated that Gaza and Khan Yunis were part of Israel.

All of this meaningful work has been driven by volunteers so far. By closing a funding round, NewsCord is now able to dedicate even more time and effort to ensure users have access to unbiased news, while continuing to hold journalists and politicians accountable when they engage in hate speech, dehumanize minorities, or spread propaganda.

Nima Akram, NewsCord’s founder, has a clear plan for the next phase. The action campaigns will get sharper, with more pressure behind them. They are also going after newsrooms directly, helping them do better journalism since investigative work in particular is slowly disappearing. Organizations that mobilise their own communities will be able to run campaigns through NewsCord's technology under their own name. And the media analysis itself goes deeper, quantifying bias the way they did in their UK media report on the coverage of the Gaza genocide.

If you haven't used NewsCord yet, start here. And if you run a newsroom or an organisation that mobilises people, they want to hear from you.

Tech for Palestine is an incubator for pro-Palestine advocacy. Have skills to share or a project in mind? Join us by becoming a member. Want to support this important work? Donate.