• Priority Area Boosting Fact-checking Activities in Europe
• Funding Round / Action Types 7th Funding Round – Scale-up Projects
• Year 2024, 2025
• Country United Kingdom
• Project Status Ongoing

This project will scale up the Open Source Munitions portal, the first open-source platform to help journalists, researchers, and civilians in conflict-affected countries fact-check evidence of munitions used in today’s battlefields.

Understanding the impact, use and nature of common munitions has until now been knowledge held by an elite group of munitions experts – largely inaccessible to smaller local newsrooms, non-specialists and freelance open source investigators.

In conflict zones, this lack of information has resulted in the proliferation of mis- and disinformation – with the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza particularly impacted. This, in turn, has led to distrust in information and growing fake news. Fact checking on munitions use can help stem this.

The project will scale up the Open Source Munitions Portal over 12 months. The development will include additional functionality, additional conflicts, a more transparent verification methodology and a community-focussed image selection and verification process – as well as thousands of more images. This will all be a direct aid to fact checkers globally, including in particular in local newsrooms. It will also add a tailored Ukrainian language version of the tool to allow it to be of use for civilians – with particular focus on the types of unexploded ordnance that typically harms civilians.