Analysis
Security
The Kremlin Tests Europe’s Defences without Firing a Shot
24 September 2025
A site called Visegrád 24 – read our reporting about it – rode the waves of military conflicts and social media angst to become a household name on X. Its new project, Middle East 24, is aiming to do the same.
Middle East 24, also known as ME24, is, according to its website, ‘a bold digital media platform’ aimed at cutting through the noise of ‘extremist platforms that glorify radicalism’ to deliver ‘fact-based content and authentic analysis that champions peace, democracy, and moderation.’ Coverage touches on Israel-Gaza diplomacy, the perils of Hamas, and the energy sector. The site debuted the first week of September, the product of a team of contributors led by Dan Feferman—an author and cohost of a podcast called Jewanced, who also serves as the chairman of Sharaka, a nongovernmental organisation that promotes trade relations between Israel and Gulf states. But you won’t find his name, or anyone else’s, on the stories published by ME24. Where a byline would be, it reads ‘327099pwpadmin.’ Articles, around ten of which are published per day, feature grainy images and anonymous analysis that sometimes reveals itself to be AI, as a headline did when I checked the site recently: ‘I apologise for any inconvenience, but I unfortunately don’t have access to the URL to read the article’s content,’ the top of the page read. ‘If you can provide more details or a summary of the article, I’d be happy to help create an SEO optimised article title based on the provided information.’
This was a technical glitch revealing of something more: As Middle East 24 notes on X, where it already has more than nineteen thousand followers, the venture is a partner of Visegrád 24—a social-media-first news channel that identifies as ‘the Most Influential Anti-Hamas Account,’ with 1.4 million followers on X and a self-reported seven billion yearly impressions. Visegrád 24, founded in 2020 with a focus on Central Europe, achieved sudden reach and influence when Russia invaded Ukraine. The site pushed newswire summaries alongside sensationalist stories—Leonardo DiCaprio donating ten million dollars to Ukraine, Pornhub blocking access to its page from Russia—that turned out to be false. Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter benefited Visegrád 24: a few times, when the account was banned for violating community guidelines, Musk saw to its reinstatement; he also reposted Visegrád 24 content. ‘ME24 will use the same proven strategy,’ Middle East 24’s donation page states.
‘Middle East 24 basically happened because of a very simple reason: a bunch of people who are concerned about where the region is going and see an opportunity to do something about it came together,’ Ahmed Quraishi, a Pakistani journalist and policy expert who is a member of ME24’s advisory board, told me. Under Feferman’s direction, Quraishi said, he and a group of several other Middle East policy wonks set the site’s agenda. (Feferman declined to speak with me.) ‘We volunteer our own sort of help in framing in a way that would serve our interest and would be clear and accurate,’ Quraishi said.
There is no newsroom. Per Quraishi, articles are produced and posted on social media by a rotating team of copy editors shared with Visegrád 24. ‘Initially we began with their team, and now we’re expanding with our own indigenous domestic Middle East–based team, mostly based in Dubai, but also in other countries in the region,’ he said. When I asked why articles are anonymous, he replied, ‘We are volunteering our time and resources; many of us are involved in other work. And of course we need to also be on the right side of the ethical concerns.’
Ethical propriety has been a complicated subject for Visegrád 24, which at first positioned itself as an aggregator, repackaging news on Twitter that portrayed the region as a home to thriving democracies—despite increasing evidence to the contrary. Stefan Tompson, a Polish South African public relations professional, said on a podcast last year that he was moved to start the site because of ‘a hegemony of left-wing journalists’ writing negative stories about the region; he wanted to provide a counter-narrative. (Visegrád is an umbrella term for Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, and Hungary.) Later, Visegrád 24 repositioned itself as an outlet primarily covering the war in Gaza, consistently supporting Israel’s actions. The site soon went global: Two weeks after the conflict started, the Center for an Informed Public at the University of Washington found Visegrád 24 to be the most influential account following the news, as its posts amassed more than 370 million views. Visegrád 24’s YouTube channel similarly took off. Other favoured storylines have since included anything promoting Europe’s far right, deriding Muslim immigrants, and chronicling campus protests in the United States.
Quraishi told me that, with Middle East 24, ‘we went the way of crowdfunding instead of accepting investors.’ Per the donor page, there’s ‘No legacy media baggage. No donor agendas. No apologies. Just truth, clarity, and a mission to reshape how the world sees the Middle East—before it’s too late.’ Whether that follows the financial model of Visegrád 24 is unclear. In September 2022, Tompson said that he and a few friends had been running the page for free. The friends included Adam Starzyński, who before his V24 bylines built a name for himself in Poland working for TV Republika, a Fox News–inspired Polish TV channel, and running a popular right-wing Twitter page called ‘Based Poland’ (until it got banned). Tompson and Starzyński were also board members and strategists for a now defunct Polish-funded NGO called State of Poland Foundation, which aimed to ‘promote a positive image of Poland as a modern, innovative, and hospitable country rich in tradition, culture, and universal values’—until 2023, when the country’s right-wing government fell, and the group was shut down.
Today, both Middle East 24 and Visegrád 24 are run by a Pennsylvania-based nonprofit called the Intermarium Foundation, founded in 2022 by Tompson and Dominik Andrzejczuk, a Polish American venture capitalist and tech entrepreneur. Their stated goal is ‘strengthening independent journalism and public understanding by spotlighting urgent political, historical, and social issues often ignored or distorted by traditional media.’ The foundation claims that its yearly revenue is less than fifty thousand dollars, which leaves it under no obligation to make its finances public. (Tompson and Andrzejczuk did not respond to my requests for comment.)
Since the launch of Middle East 24, Visegrád 24’s coverage of Gaza has slowed. But each has contributed to conservative discourse, with global implications. ‘They are trying to produce the sort of content that drives engagement—whether that’s positive or negative engagement, they don’t care too much,’ Steven Buckley, a lecturer in digital media sociology at City St. George’s, University of London, observed. ‘The algorithm is directly pushing and encouraging the production of this sort of rage-baiting content.’ In the past week, Middle East 24 has covered comments made by Tom Barrack, the United States ambassador to Turkey, claiming that there’s ‘no such thing as the Middle East,’ shared footage of Swiss police officers breaking up a pro-Palestinian protest by force, and published an explainer on why Al Jazeera is a ‘propaganda network.’
Quraishi, for his part, is encouraged by Middle East 24’s early days. ‘I think people right now are moving beyond just reporting the news to really understanding the context,’ he said. ‘And there’s a battle going on right now around framing of the ideas and framing of the news. That’s where ME24 can really make an impact.’
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This piece is a co-publication of the Columbia Journalism Review and the Visegrad Insight, Res Publica Foundation – unrelated to the V24.
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