5 May 2024, William Bird and Thandi Smith, Daily Maverick
Real411 is an initiative of Media Monitoring Africa (MMA), which was started in 1993 ahead of SA’s first democratic elections to monitor and analyse how the SABC was reporting on the elections.
We are currently monitoring 95 local news media ahead of the 2024 elections — you can see how the media are reporting on the elections here. In 2019, together with the IEC, we launched a world-first: Real411 — a public platform to help the public act against misinformation and disinformation. Real411 is once again the official platform on which to report online harms for the 2024 elections.
As a registered non-benefit trust, MMA receives donations and undertakes contract work to carry out our activities. Real411 is a core initiative for the elections and, as with all other areas, we raise funds to do the work. The current list of donors is listed at the bottom of the Real411 page.
We do not accept funds from any entity that would seek to control or determine our work. No donor can influence any aspect of the Real411 system — except to share its logo with us. No donor can influence the complaints submitted to Real411 and no donor or entity, including MMA and the IEC, can influence the outcome of the complaints submitted.