ALETHEOS

Fighting Disinformation with Pro Bono

Aletheos began as a volunteer-driven civic tech initiative in Belgium, bringing together AI developers, data scientists and civil society experts committed to protecting information integrity. The team develops ethical AI-assisted tools and research methods to help journalists, researchers, NGOs and the public detect disinformation, analyse propaganda narratives and strengthen media literacy.

To move from a volunteer collective to a sustainable organisation, Aletheos needed a solid legal foundation. Pro Publico connected the team with a law firm whose pro bono support helped establish Aletheos as a Belgian nonprofit ready to scale its work against disinformation.

From Hackathons to a Recognised Belgian Nonprofit

Aletheos was born at civic tech hackathons. Over time, what started as a civic tech experiment grew into a recognised organisation supporting the integrity of independent media and freedom of the public discourse. The organisation’s two core products speak for themselves: a narrative scanner that tracks Kremlin propaganda patterns across media ecosystems, and a Telegram bot that identifies manipulation in news texts in real time. Together, these tools help researchers, journalists and civil society advocates – separate signal from noise in the constant flow of Russian state-sponsored information.

The work is led by a multidisciplinary team. Dr. Ekaterina Loginova, team lead and technical lead, holds a PhD and brings four years of industry experience in AI for socially beneficial projects. Denis Yagodin, coordinator, has been active in civil society development since 2013 and focuses on bridging technology and social good initiatives. Stepan Khramov, data analytics lead, who volunteered with Amnesty International Antwerpen, Red Cross Flanders and other established organisations.

Their partners include TrueStory, Novaya Gazeta Europe, Provereno.media and a range of other independent organisations that have collaborated with or used Aletheos tools in their work on accountability and media integrity.

The Challenge: Building Legal Roots in a Foreign Country

Relocating to Belgium provided a safe environment for the organisation and proximity to European institutions. But operating as a volunteer collective was no longer enough. Securing institutional funding, entering into formal partnerships with research organisations and scaling their AI tools across European civil society all required one thing: a recognised legal entity under Belgian law.

Navigating the legal landscape of another country as foreign founders is no small undertaking. The team needed expert guidance on establishing a nonprofit association (VZW/ASBL) including everything from drafting governing documents to understanding Belgian nonprofit law.

The Match with the pro bono lawyers

Pro Publico matched Aletheos with a team of lawyers from a leading Brussels-based international law firm.  The team guided Aletheos through every stage of the registration process – answering questions, clarifying requirements and providing the kind of responsive, thorough legal counsel the team had hoped for but might not have expected from a pro bono arrangement.

As Stepan Khramov, co-founder and data analytics lead, put it: “The lawyers were always very clear, answered all our questions, provided excellent guidance and overall went above and beyond to help us. We really appreciate the work they did for us.”

The Outcome: Aletheos VZW Is Born

The collaboration delivered a concrete, lasting result. Aletheos is now formally registered in Belgium as ALETHEOS VZW – a nonprofit association with the legal standing to operate, enter partnerships and access funding across the European Union.

The name reflects the organisation’s mission: aletheia, the ancient Greek concept of truth and disclosure, now embedded in the legal name of an organisation dedicated to making truth harder to obscure.

The impact was immediate. According to Stepan: “Having our organisation officially established as a Belgian nonprofit opened doors for us to participate in projects with well-established European research institutions. This would allow us to provide our technical expertise in media analytics for projects impacting tens of thousands of people, pushing the boundaries of what is possible to support media freedom in Europe.”

Why Pro Bono Legal Support Is a Force Multiplier for Civic Tech

For organisations like Aletheos, legal status is not a bureaucratic formality – it is a prerequisite for impact. Without it, even the most technically sophisticated tools cannot reach institutional partners or access the funding needed to grow. Pro bono legal assistance, when it meets the right organisation at the right moment, acts as a force multiplier: a relatively bounded professional investment that unlocks a much larger social return.

Stepan’s reflection captures this well: “For non-profits at the beginning of their journey, even a small help goes a long way and creates real momentum. Working with the pro bono lawyers to establish our legal presence put us on the right track to grow and become a sustainable organisation. Thanks to that we have many exciting projects coming our way to secure the free digital discourse and help organisations drowning in ongoing flows of information to separate signal from noise and focus on what really matters.”

Pro Publico is proud to have played a part in this story — and inspired by what Aletheos is building.

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