Tackling online harms means following the money.
Your donation goes directly into our daily work: mapping the revenues that sustain harmful content online and building the independent evidence base that enables policymakers, regulators, and industry to act.
You fund independent research into how harmful content is monetised through advertising, merchandise, donations, crypto, and platform revenue shares. You enable our policy work with regulators to support effective implementation of regulations such as the EU's Digital Services Act. You keep our work independent: we accept no funding from media companies or technology platforms.
The business model behind harmful content remains largely hidden. With global digital advertising spend exceeding $800 billion annually, programmatic advertising routinely funds high-risk disinformation sites, not because advertisers choose to, but because ad tech supply chains are structurally opaque. Without credible, independent evidence on how harmful content is financed, regulators cannot design effective interventions. That evidence is what your donation makes possible.
It works. Approximately $200 million per year has been redirected away from high-risk news sites as a result of GDI's and partner organisations' work with the advertising industry.
Voluntary commitments from platforms have proven insufficient; lasting change requires enforceable frameworks built on independent evidence. Because we accept no money from the companies we assess, donations from people like you keep that evidence credible.
When harmful content stops being profitable, the internet becomes safer for everyone.
Questions about your donation? Contact our team — we'll get back to you.