Content and Source Disclaimers

Meridian aggregates material created by others: news organisations, governments, courts, international bodies, researchers, sensor networks and individuals. We do not create primary intelligence, and we do not author, verify, adopt or endorse what our sources say. A source’s presence on Meridian does not mean we consider it reliable, and the views it expresses are its own. Sources can be wrong, biased, state-controlled, partisan or deliberately deceptive, and Meridian labels them as best it can.

Grades, confidence levels, labels, clusters, links between entities and scores are assessments made largely by software, at a point in time, from the evidence available to it. They describe how well a claim is supported, not whether it is true. A high grade can be wrong and a low grade can be right. Material graded contested, unverified or conspiracy-grade is shown so it can be examined, not because we give it credence. Links between people, organisations, places and events show that sources connect them, not that any relationship, wrongdoing or responsibility exists.

The appearance of a person’s or organisation’s name in any document, flight log, contact book, address list, cable, court filing, deposition, dataset, graph or search result on Meridian does not mean, and must not be taken to mean, that the person or organisation committed any crime or wrongdoing, knew of or was involved in any event, or is accused of anything.

Court records may contain allegations that were never proven, were withdrawn or were rejected. Everyone is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty by a court. Where we show an allegation, it is attributed to its source and remains only an allegation.

• Meridian includes documents released by governments (for example through declassification programmes and freedom-of-information processes), filed in or released by courts, released by legislatures, and documents that were already widely published by others before Meridian included them.
• We do not solicit, receive, purchase or publish newly leaked or classified material, and we ask you not to send any to us. We keep official redactions in place and do not attempt to reverse them.
• Inclusion of a document does not mean we vouch for its authenticity, completeness or accuracy, or that it reflects the current position of the government or organisation it came from. Unless a document is labelled as officially released, treat its provenance as unverified.
• We exclude, and remove on request, information that identifies victims of sexual abuse or minors, even where it appears in released material.
• If you hold a security clearance or are otherwise bound by confidentiality obligations, those obligations may apply to material in the public domain. Complying with them is your responsibility.

Aircraft and vessel positions come from public receiver networks and published feeds (such as ADS-B, MLAT and AIS). They can be delayed, missing, spoofed, jammed, misattributed or deliberately disabled, and gaps are common in conflict areas. Owner and operator information is drawn from public registers and may be outdated. Aircraft whose owners have asked for their flights to be withheld through the FAA’s privacy programmes are excluded. This data must never be used for navigation, collision avoidance, search and rescue, safety of life or targeting.

• Imagery may be days, months or years old, may be composited from several dates, and may be too coarse to show what it seems to show. Imagery dates and providers are given where known.
• Boundaries, names and labels on Meridian’s maps come from their data sources and are shown for reference only. Their depiction does not imply any position by Surf Platforms on the legal status of any country, territory or area, or on the delimitation of any frontier or boundary.

Casualty counts, damage assessments, troop numbers, trade volumes and other figures are reported by sources that often disagree, revise their figures and have interests in the outcome. Meridian shows them as reported, attributed to their source, and they should not be treated as authoritative.

Sanctions designations, ownership chains and corporate links are compiled from public lists and registers and matched automatically. Names are matched probabilistically and can produce false matches and missed matches, and lists change daily. Meridian is not a sanctions-screening, export-control, know-your-customer, anti-money-laundering or due-diligence tool, and must not be used to make compliance decisions. Always consult the official lists.

Forecasts, probabilities, risk scores and indicators are statistical or model estimates with wide uncertainty. They are not predictions, guarantees or advice, and must not be used to make investment, trading, insurance, travel or security decisions.

Summaries, extracted facts, translations, links and analyst answers are generated by language models. They can misread sources, mistranslate, omit context, invent details or citations, and reflect biases in their training. They are checked automatically, not by a person, before you see them. Verify anything important against the original source, which Meridian links wherever it can.

Meridian covers armed conflict, terrorism, abuse and disaster, and its sources may include graphic descriptions or images. Use it with that in mind.

Sources are collected on schedules and can be delayed, interrupted or withdrawn by their publishers. Meridian may not reflect the latest developments, and an absence of reports is not evidence that nothing happened.

Nothing on Meridian is legal, financial, investment, tax, medical, security, military, travel or other professional advice. Consult a qualified professional before acting on any information it shows.

If you believe something Meridian shows is wrong, unlawful or harmful, tell us as described in the corrections policy.