Money. Identity. Technology.
Follow the money. Find the decision.
Advocacy aimed at advertising and vendor decisions
An advocacy organisation pressing advertisers, advertising intermediaries and regulators to stop revenue reaching material it considers harmful.
Its Ofcom submission requested customer checks for monetising creators and advertisers and clearance before monetisation when risk indicators appear. These proposals concern commercial participation and can affect pseudonymity and income.
Ofcom considered but did not recommend specific monetisation practices in one crisis-response measure. That is a documented limit on uptake, not evidence that every other request was either accepted or rejected.
Ford Foundation → Check My Ads
Approval month2022-10; stated term2022-10 through2023-09; exact days unknown.
Ford reports USD200000 General Support, approvedOctober2022 for October2022–September2023. This is an approved award, not payment or support earmarked to a later2025 campaign. Financial details: value: 200,000; currency: USD; kind: approved grant; period: October2022–September2023 Payment status: unverified
14April2025 DV preservation demand → Check My Ads
2025-04-14 – 2025-04-14
Addressed to Arielle Garcia care of CMA; asks confirmation by noonEDT16April. It demands neither immediate production, retraction nor cessation. Actual confirmation/compliance not acquired.
Check My Ads → CMA additional-safety response — 2025
2025 consultation; exact submission day unknown.
Ofcom hosts CMA's31-page additional-safety response. The11December2025 listing date is not an independently established submission date.
Oak Foundation → Check My Ads
2025 report; exact approval/start/end dates unknown.
Oak's2025 report lists USD600000 over three years for CMA core support promoting transparency and fairness in digital advertising. Award is not annual expenditure, cash payment, exact grant-start date, or an earmark to the Ofcom response. Oak contracting group entity is unspecified. Financial details: value: 600,000; currency: USD; kind: reported three-year grant; period: three years; exact term dates unknown Payment status: unverified Which legal entity: Printed grantee is Check My Ads; row does not supply EIN or contracting Oak entity.
KR Foundation → Check My Ads
Inclusive stated grant term, not disbursement dates; granted in2023, exact approval day unknown.
Donor-authored2023 report lists DKK1991232, term1May2023–1May2025, to cut climate-change and election disinformation off at the source. Not a traced allocation to the February2025 child-safety letters. Financial details: value: 1,991,232; currency: DKK; kind: reported grant; period: 1May2023–1May2025 Payment status: unverified
Democracy Fund, Inc. → Check My Ads
Calendar2023; individual payment date unknown.
The donor's2023 paid-grant schedule names CMA for General Support. USD450000 is a reader/discovery candidate whose row alignment was not visually verified, so no precise amount is encoded. A separate future-payment entry is not a second payment.
Check My Ads → CMA reported funding mix — 2024
Report period2024; publication pathFebruary2025 is not the accounting period.
CMA's2024 graphic labels major donors59, foundations30 and individuals11. These chart values have no explicit percent sign or dollar denominator; 490 recurring donors and the separate Checkmates60/one-time40 chart are distinct measures.
Check My Ads → 14April2025 DV preservation demand
2025-04-16 – 2025-04-16
16April statement says it will comply with legal obligations but views demand as overbroad and will continue work. This is a position, not completed preservation or judicial overbreadth finding; no measured chilling effect established.
Closed bounded acquisition: 9 September 2026. This packet concerns Check My Ads Institute's response to Ofcom's Additional Safety Measures consultation, not an enacted CMA rule. The consultation opened 30 June and closed 20 October 2025. Its regulator-hosted response entry is dated 11 December 2025; that is the displayed publication/listing date, not an independently established submission date.
Read the research & sources ↗Two mechanisms are now evidenced: DV counsel to Check My Ads, preservation demand under a stated litigation threat; and DV corporate plaintiffs to Adalytics, filed claims seeking damages and correction. The shared subject matter and counsel do not erase their different addressees or procedural states. A public research-to-lawmakers route was within the letter's requested preservation scope; it was not shown to be prohibited by an exercised court power.
Read the research & sources ↗The most discriminating missing records are Check My Ads' actual response/confirmation and any later filed instrument specifically naming it; for the Adalytics branch, the court's subsequent disposition or an executed settlement would distinguish requested correction from achieved correction. A public rebuttal and a demand letter can be both reputation defense and pressure on a critic; these sources alone do not decide the merits or measure downstream chilling.
Read the research & sources ↗Oak's grants make an instructive comparison. Its published 2025 awards include three-year support to Check My Ads, Digital Freedom Fund and Statewatch. Statewatch endorsed objections to broad scanning and possible identity requirements in the EU child-abuse proposal; the WeProtect Secretariat supported mandatory detection with safeguards in a different, earlier version of that debate. The comparison is evidence of divergent interventions, not a same-draft controlled experiment.
Read the research & sources ↗KR Foundation, specified advocacy and CMA's changing funding mix ↗
CMA's monetization proposal and Ofcom's response ↗
Donor resources behind CMA capacity: Democracy Fund and Ford ↗
Recipient resources and the decision-rights gap ↗
DoubleVerify / Check My Ads: preservation demand and the distinct Adalytics complaint ↗
The February2025 pressure route into advertising defaults ↗
Oak support for Check My Ads: a verified grant, bounded terms ↗
Oak reports three-year support to these five recipients. Each amount belongs to its own grant year and purpose. The arrows have equal weight; they do not measure financial influence.
Open diagram →Named grants establish resources; KR’s statutes establish internal selection and appointment rights. CMA’s two funding charts describe a changed mix without explaining its cause.
Open diagram →CMA asks for creator/advertiser checks, platform review before monetization and sanctions. Its crisis revenue/refund proposal has an explicit regulator response: specific monetization practices were not recommended.
Open diagram →Adalytics research and CMA’s claimed advocacy precede the February 2025 requests to DV, MRC and TAG. TAG reports no investigated BSC violations; DV disputes interpretation and reports additional safeguards.
Open diagram →DV Holdings’ counsel issued a preservation demand, and CMA publicly objected. The later complaint names both DV legal entities as plaintiffs and Adalytics as defendant; it separately alleges coordination with CMA.
Open diagram →Check My Ads → claims advocacy contribution → February2025 Blackburn–Blumenthal advertising inquiry
2025-02-07 – 2025-02-07
Reported by the cited source
CMA says its advocacy helped the inquiry. Senate records independently establish requests but do not credit CMA with drafting; no sole-cause claim.
14April2025 DV preservation demand → requests preservation and confirmation → Check My Ads
2025-04-14 – 2025-04-14
Addressed to Arielle Garcia care of CMA; asks confirmation by noonEDT16April. It demands neither immediate production, retraction nor cessation. Actual confirmation/compliance not acquired.
Check My Ads → publicly objects while asserting legal compliance → 14April2025 DV preservation demand
2025-04-16 – 2025-04-16
Reported by the cited source
16April statement says it will comply with legal obligations but views demand as overbroad and will continue work. This is a position, not completed preservation or judicial overbreadth finding; no measured chilling effect established.
DV v Adalytics complaint —12May2025 → alleges coordinated amplification → Check My Ads
2025-05-12 – 2025-05-12
Reported by the cited source
Paragraph68 alleges coordination with CMA in amplifying statements. This remains plaintiff allegation and does not establish a judicial finding, operational control or that CMA was sued in this complaint.
Ford Foundation → approved general support → Check My Ads
Approval month2022-10; stated term2022-10 through2023-09; exact days unknown.
Ford reports USD200000 General Support, approvedOctober2022 for October2022–September2023. This is an approved award, not payment or support earmarked to a later2025 campaign.
Financial details: value: 200,000; currency: USD; kind: approved grant; period: October2022–September2023
Payment status: unverified
Democracy Fund, Inc. → reported paid general support → Check My Ads
Calendar2023; individual payment date unknown.
Reported by the cited source
The donor's2023 paid-grant schedule names CMA for General Support. USD450000 is a reader/discovery candidate whose row alignment was not visually verified, so no precise amount is encoded. A separate future-payment entry is not a second payment.
Democracy Fund, Inc. → reported paid general support → Check My Ads
Calendar2024; individual payment date unknown.
Reported by the cited source
The donor's2024 paid-grant schedule names CMA for General Support. USD250000 is a reader/discovery candidate with unverified visual row alignment; this record carries no precise amount or exact payment date.
KR Foundation → reported a climate/election disinformation grant → Check My Ads
Inclusive stated grant term, not disbursement dates; granted in2023, exact approval day unknown.
Reported by the cited source
Donor-authored2023 report lists DKK1991232, term1May2023–1May2025, to cut climate-change and election disinformation off at the source. Not a traced allocation to the February2025 child-safety letters.
Financial details: value: 1,991,232; currency: DKK; kind: reported grant; period: 1May2023–1May2025
Payment status: unverified
KR Foundation → listed a later grant term → Check My Ads
Stated grant term, not approval or payment dates.
Reported by the cited source
KR's public2025 list records CMA, US,1April2025–1April2027. Amount, purpose and payment are not disclosed in this list; the2023 amount/purpose are not carried forward.
Check My Ads → reported a funding-source chart → CMA reported funding mix — 2024
Report period2024; publication pathFebruary2025 is not the accounting period.
Reported by the cited source
CMA's2024 graphic labels major donors59, foundations30 and individuals11. These chart values have no explicit percent sign or dollar denominator; 490 recurring donors and the separate Checkmates60/one-time40 chart are distinct measures.
Check My Ads → reported foundation grants as 82.8 percent → CMA reported funding mix — 2025
Report period2025; URL path containsApril2026, not an independently established publication date.
Reported by the cited source
CMA's2025 chart explicitly reports foundation grants82.8%, major donors12.3% and individuals4.9%, with four new institutional donors and three multiyear renewals. No absolute revenue or causal explanation for the shift is supplied.
Check My Ads → published a historical board roster → CMA board — 2024 reported roster
2024 annual-report context; precise tenure intervals unknown.
Reported by the cited source
The2024 annual report names a board and co-chairs; it supplies no donor appointment/veto mechanism or current-office guarantee.
Oak Foundation funds both online-safety advocacy and organisations challenging surveillance. Follow the grants, then follow each recipient’s choices.
Read the storyThe UK and Australia offer something stronger than a list of shared contacts: documents showing policy ideas entering official consideration—and changing along the way.
Read the story