The first pillar of the Beacon Project’s approach to countering disinformation is creating a broad network of expert practitioners throughout Europe who work to address disinformation and foreign meddling in democratic processes.
Since creating the Beacon Project in 2015, IRI has built the wide-ranging Beacon Network. Once a siloed group working separately, IRI brought partners together to create a networked coalition with access to policymakers at the EU and national level.
The Beacon Network consists of more than 500 active members from 27 European countries. Network members have backgrounds in political parties, national parliaments, the European Parliament, governments, academia, tech, civil society, nonprofits, and the media.
Our partners are vital to the success of our program as they understand the political and social intricacies of their home countries and share a common interest in a more democratic and free Europe. Finding the right partners who are motivated to create a free Europe ensures the benefits of this project are sustainable.
Beacon Network members receive credible research and data, training and access to IRI’s proprietary online media monitoring platform >versus<, and opportunities to advocate specific policy proposals to high-level policymakers.
Beacon Project roundtable discussions, trainings, and public forums bring together actors from both politics and civil society. Our forums create a dialogue that informs the policy-making process. Learn more about how Beacon engages policymakers here.
In addition to public events, the Beacon Project engages partners through small task groups that work on specific initiatives designed to spur a more targeted response to disinformation across different levels of civil society and government institutions. Partner initiatives may be focused on research, public awareness, and advocating for a specific policy.