Tax breaks for right-wing news: US non-profit status helps Polish news aggregator, run by South Africans, push global conservative narrative

Backed by Polish state funds and protected by U.S. tax breaks, a Central European news aggregator is fuelling the global spread of a white genocide narrative in South Africa. Operating under the banner of Visegrád24, the site blends far-right, anti- migrant, and anti-Islam rhetoric with influence operations targeting African and Middle Eastern politics, all while maintaining ties to South African journalists and commentators. At the centre of this operation: a media platform propped up by government money and quietly operating across borders under the radar of regulation.

These cases suggest a strategic alignment: Visegrád24 and its Polish-South African co-founder Stefan Tompson appear to have benefited from funding tied to a conservative government agenda, while maintaining public claims of independence and positioning the brand as a legitimate news organisation.

South African media outlet Daily Maverick previously reported about Tompson’s links to the country and Visegrád24’s influence on X owner Elon Musk.

An investigation into the operations of Visegrád24 has now revealed the real ownership and business structure that are driving this non-profit campaign and provides a narrative analysis into the content that they use. Analysing the content or narratives that they drive is important for many reasons. Firstly, there are prohibitions against tax exempt entities regarding verbal and written expressions that favour or oppose people who stand for public office. Secondly analysing the narratives allows researchers to record the anti-migrant and conservative rhetoric that they use, which aligns with a right-wing, pro-Israel and anti-Islam agenda. Moreover, closer to home, it has been important to analyse the content they use about the perceived victimhood of Afrikaners in South Africa, as they try to establish a new global structure for online news. One of the founders of the brand has in the past created a Polish documentary that shows white Afrikaans people in rural areas as though dispossessed of land with a provocative Polish title about Afrikaners that would make it more relatable to older Polish audiences.

The site’s focus on political issues in the Middle East and South Africa is clear from its selection of news stories. On the home page of the Visegrád24 website in mid-June 2025, seven stories could be seen. Two of them were about the Middle East and three about South Africa.

Figure 1 : Visegrád24’s home page in June 2025

The geographical areas being covered were noteworthy as Visegrád24 had always positioned itself as a Central European news aggregator since it was founded in 2020. A news aggregator is a consolidator of information from various sources. Visegrad is Slavic word used to refer an “upper castle”. During the 14th century, this upper castle is the place where rulers from Luxembourg, Poland and Hungary met to discuss political and economic cooperation between countries in the region.

The brand now claims that they have transformed into a leading international news outlet, which covers “critical global issues from mass migration in Europe to land seizures in South Africa”. All the while, a red ticker tape runs across the bottom of the website asking viewers/readers to donate, claiming an added incentive that donations are 100% tax deductible.

While much focus about the ownership of the brand has been on Stefan Tompson, who appears to relish any form of public attention he attracts, a person who seems to have avoided news headlines related to Visegrád24 is Dominik Andrzejczuk, a Polish-American Venture Capitalist in early stage Deep Tech start-ups whose initiatives appear to be heavily funded by the Polish Development Fund (PFR) – a joint-stock company owned by the State Treasury of Poland.

Moreover, while Visegrád24 claims to be based in Poland, many of its regular writers are South African (for example conservative advocate for Cape Independence Willem Petzer and Heike Claudia du Toit) and what should be considered the parent organisation or holding body behind Visegrád24 is a US-based section 501(c)(3) tax exempt, non-profit entity headquartered in Pennsylvania – The Intermarium Foundation.

This report begins by looking at Dominik Andrzejczuk, Stefan Tompson and the Polish Government and includes how the association between Andrzejczuk and Visegrád24 was discovered. A narrative analysis follows to position why this report is important for not only South African media consumers but the broader African and global social media communities. Lastly the report looks at the ownership and business structure of Visegrád24 and its parent organisation to explain their success factors.

From South Africa to Poland, to the USA

During the data collection phase of this report, there was one name that appeared in two separate searches regarding the Intermarium Foundation, a section 501(c)(3) tax-exempt entity that is registered in the USA – Dominik Andrzejczuk. IRS filings for the organisation from 2023, which are publicly available, show that the principal officer of the Intermarium Foundation was Dominik Andrzejczuk. According to IRS information, the principal officer of a non-profit organization is the person who, regardless of their specific title, has ultimate responsibility for one of the following:

•  Implementing the decisions of the organization’s governing body (e.g., the board of directors).
• Supervising the management, administration, or operation of the organization.

Another name that appeared in connection with the Intermarium Foundation in 2023 was Tytus Cytowski, a managing partner at a boutique law firm that focuses on emerging tech companies and venture investors in San Francisco, New York and Warsaw. It is not clear what role Cytowski plays for the Intermarium Foundation in 2025, if any at all.

Figure 2: Publicly available IRS filings for the Intermarium Foundation in 2023

Further, an ownership search for the latest address that is registered to the organisation in Perkasie, Pennsylvania shows that Dominik Andrzejczuk was an owner or resident of the property from January to December 2024 but that ownership or residence in 2025 is now only in the names of relatives of Andrzejczuk as they hold the same surname as Dominik and through a social media based search, it appears that one of the names still on the property is that of Andrzejczuk’s mother. On his LinkedIn profile, Andrzejczuk has listed that he was the founder and Director of the Intermarium Foundation from February 2023 until February 2025. However, the present nature of his relationship with the organisation remains unclear as the address of the organisation still points to the address in Perkasie that is in the names of his family members.

Dominik Andrzejczuk has a close connection with a government entity in Poland, the Polish Development Fund or PFR. In 2024, the PFR landed major funding from the European Union that will be injected into 40 venture capital funds for approximately 2 billion PLN (roughly 9.5 trillion ZAR/540million USD).

Figure 3: Visegrád24’s logo closely echoes that of News24, the largest news platform in South Africa, the home country of Visegrád24 co-founder, Stefan Tompson.

The PFR has confirmed that Dominik Andrzejczuk is a co-manager of Atmos Ventures, a venture capital fund operating within the PFR framework. The PFR is a state-owned financial group tasked with supporting the development of Polish businesses, often through co-investments in early-stage companies via a venture capital pool. Atmos Ventures is co-managed by Andrzejczuk alongside two international partners: one a Canadian resident of the UAE, the other a French citizen residing in Cyprus. Both are high profile individuals, who have in the past bragged about “advising the UK Government” and raising hundreds of million in USD for their companies. Atmos Ventures is an entity focusing on high-tech investments, including companies dealing with chemical synthesis solutions, and quantum computers among other things.

At present, Atmos Ventures manages a portfolio worth approximately 100 million PLN (~490 million ZAR/ 27 million USD). Should the investments succeed, Andrzejczuk and his co-founders stand to earn significant performance-based compensation—potentially making them millionaires through the success of the fund, if this is not already the case. These gains are a direct result of the Polish state’s support and designed incentives.

Figure 4: Network of connections within Visegrad24-Middle East 24 network

The PFR’s structure is designed to ensure accountability: fund managers must co-invest alongside unrelated investors to prevent misuse of public money. A spokesperson and a senior executive at the PFR both described the manager selection process as rigorous” and “multi-staged”. Prospective fund managers are evaluated based on the coherence of their professional history, their ability to identify and structure investments, and their networks in relevant industries. Andrzejczuk and his partners had to prove their credibility and capability before being granted access to public capital.

However, once selected, PFR does not monitor or interfere with its managers’ external activities—such as media involvement or private ventures. This appears to be the case with Andrzejczuk, whose activities related to Visegrád24 fall outside the PFR’s formal oversight.

Prior to receiving this funding, Andrzejczuk doesn’t appear to have been too vocal about Poland online. However, since 2018 he has not only heavily promoted his move back to Poland, but he has also appeared on TEDx arguing how Poland is following in the footsteps of Silicon Valley and Israel who became “Tech Powerhouses”. This demonstrates that Andrzejczuk possesses the tech savvy and media know how to attract funding and how to strategically market opportunities for future investment.

Figure 5: Andrzejczuk promoting Poland as next big tech hub following investments received from the PFR.

His ability to position narratives in a way that promotes his pro-Polish agenda also raises questions about the true nature of his involvement with Visegrád24 and why he chooses to stay out of the limelight even though he can be directly linked to the American-based non-profit organisation that funds Visegrád24 and a newer campaign, Middle East 24.

Outside of Visegrád24, the exact nature of the relationship between Dominik Andrzejczuk and Stefan Tompson is not fully transparent. Public records show that the two men are co-owners of at least one Polish-registered company: Black Horse Advisors, described as a financial advisory entity. At the time of writing, the company had not filed any financial statements. Andrzejczuk has also contributed content to the Visegrád24 platform. Additionally, Visegrád24 has published articles either authored by individuals connected to, or focused on, companies backed by Atmos Ventures. At least one such article was later removed.

Although Tompson has stated that Visegrád24 have not received any funds from the Polish Government, indirect financial support can be established through at least two grants funded by the Polish state. 

In 2022, the Institute for the Legacy of Polish National Thought—a state-related body promoting Poland’s “historical policy” with a focus on nationalist, social-Catholic, and conservative values—received 110,000 PLN (538,846 ZAR/ 30,166 USD). One of its projects, a campaign titled “Friends of Poland,” was promoted almost exclusively on the social media accounts of Stefan Tompson and Visegrád24. One of the two companies invoicing for the campaign was Bracia Tompson S.C. (“Tompson Brothers”), based in Warsaw.

In 2023, just months before parliamentary elections in Poland, another grant was issued: a six-month contract for nearly 2.5 million PLN (~ 12 million ZAR/ 687,000 USD) awarded to a foundation named the Action-Life Foundation by the office of then-Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki. Morawiecki’s government had previously faced scrutiny for channelling public funds into right-wing media ventures. Visegrád24 had previously been associated with an unfinalized high-value grant in 2022 that drew media attention.

The 2023 grant did not initially name Visegrád24 as a beneficiary. However, in the final project report, the platform was described as the “social media” component of the initiative—potentially boosting the project’s reach metrics while keeping Visegrád24’s involvement under the radar. Over half of the grant was spent on services like video production and content creation, which may have indirectly sponsored outlets such as Visegrád24 without naming them explicitly. However, more access to financial records is required to confirm the total volume that was awarded to content production entities. These cases suggest a strategic alignment: Visegrád24 and Stefan Tompson appear to have benefited from funding tied to a conservative government agenda, while maintaining public claims of independence and positioning the brand as a legitimate news organisation.

South Africa and #WhiteGenocide

In 2018, Visegrád24 founder, who was born after the end of Apartheid, Stefan Tompson, recorded a documentary called Afrykański Wołyń or “African Volhynia”. The title of the series and its content is important to unpack. “Volhynia” refers to a historic region in Central Europe where a massacre of Poles took place between 1943 and 1945. The area is famous for its turbulent history since as early as the 12th century, which included land dispossession through multiple invasions. After World War II, it became part of the Ukranian Soviet Socialist Republic. Therefore, as a Polish documentary, the idea of an “African Volhinya” that goes on to show poor, white Afrikaans people in rural areas elicits the shared memory of a people left without land and identity through a change in leadership and system of governance. This would make the perceived victimhood of Afrikaners relatable to the lived experience of Poles historically, which feeds into the pre-existing biases of a Polish right-wing audience. Although a trailer was released by Tompson for this documentary, the full episode does not seem to have aired as many of the comments to his post were of people asking where they could find the content.

While Tompson does claim in a Polish radio interview that the documentary was intended to draw attention to all South Africans because the material is even broader than just about farmers, this idea of the whole of South Africa being impacted is not reflected in the material that is shared by Tompson on social media or through the Visegrád24 X account or that of its associates.

However, the use of only white South Africans in the trailer along with images from the Witkruis Monument (a monument complex in South Africa that displays white painted crosses to symbolise deaths related to farm attacks in the country) and the association with the “Volhynia” suggest instead that the material about land dispossession that Tompson was creating, would align with the false content that is shared online of a white genocide taking place in South Africa. 

This suggestion is strengthened through his association with people in South Africa who drive narratives about rural safety issues with a specific focus on white, Afrikaans people, such as Sebastiaan Jooste, owner of the infamous “Twatterbaas” account on X, (see picture of Jooste and Tompson below) and far right activist, Willem Petzer (one of the regular writers for the campaign as mentioned above). Both Tompson and Petzer can be seen on a hunting expedition here in 2024.

Figure 6: Visegrád24 co-founder, Stefan Tompson, pictured with Sebastiaan Jooste.

Figure 7: Visegrád24 co-founder, Stefan Tompson, pictured with one of Visegrád24’s writers’, Willem Petzer.

Based on Willem Petzer Senior’s account (that was open to the public at the time of writing), images of Tompson relaxing at a braai with the NG Kerk preacher (Willem Petzer Senior) and the younger Willem Petzer can be seen here and here in 2021. Willem Petzer Junior is a South African YouTuber who refers to himself as an “Afrikaans Commentator”. He has been known to share misleading information regarding South African government entities in the past and has been labelled as divisive for driving racially charged narratives on social media. Willem Petzer Junior has also advocated for the cessation of the Western Cape from the rest of South Africa through the Cape Independence Advocacy group referring to South Africans who enter the Western Cape from other provinces in their own country as migrants.

Figure 8: Visegrád24 co-founder, Stefan Tompson, pictured with Willem Petzer Junior and Willem Petzer Senior in 2021

Years later in 2025, the false narrative of a white genocide taking place in South Africa has become so deeply entrenched that it broke out onto the global stage and was used by President Donald Trump to justify a resettlement of ~50 white, Afrikaners who declared themselves refugees. Following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to the white house, news media houses like CNN and the BBC reported on the false narrative to show how it had been amplified through social media. Reuters also showed how some of the content that Trump used to substantiate why he truly believed that there was a genocide of white South Africans taking place was actually from an incident that took place in the DRC. 

While the rest of the world was reporting about how Trump used misleading media and a false narrative to intervene on international affairs, @visegrad24 posted: “In just a little over 5 months, South Africa has seen a string of brutal farm attacks and murders. Elderly victims, bloody scenes, and terrifying violence. Here are a few of the recent cases President Trump was referring to in the oval office”. In the comments section, @visegrad24 posted a string of violent crimes that could be associated with the timeframe of “just a little over 5 months”. 

One of these comments by @visegrad24 claimed that the victim of an attack by three robbers is “in a Pretoria hospital, barely alive.” The screenshot of an article posted via the citizen is carefully snipped so that the date is not shown, only the heading “Robbers killed after allegedly threatening to kill young couple’s baby” and an image of emergency services evacuating bodies from a residence. Using a basic online search, it is simple to see that this incident happened in Middelburg in 2018 as reported here, here and here. Therefore, it is unlikely that the man was in a Pretoria hospital at the time of the aforementioned post was created. It should further be noted from these articles that the body bags being removed from the scene are those of two of the intruders who were shot dead by the man referred to in the story. This decontextualised content is presented without their original context making it difficult for users to understand the true meaning or origin of the information being shared. 

It is possible that the person who created the post for @visegrad24 drew this information from a source like a Facebook group called “Break the Silence about South Africa” which posted the story of the incident in Middelburg on 18 May 2025 with the heading “FARM ATTACK:” or from another Facebook account called “Boerelegioen” who also posted the story on 18 May 2025. It would be important to analyse groups like these on Facebook in the future to understand if there is any coordination between posts made directly from the people behind the page and as they appear to recycle stories about violent crimes thus keeping these stories in the faces and minds of the public. Based on the comments to the posts, they appear to encourage strong emotions of sadness and anger from the people who view the material.

Figure 8: Comment in thread of @visegrad24 that contains misleading information about a Middelburg incident making it appear that the incident took place only months before President Ramaphosa met Donald Trump in the white house.

Figure 9: An article of the actual incident that took place in Middelburg in 2018

Figure 10: Facebook group called “Break the Silence About South Africa” recycling the Middelburg story from 2018. again in 2025

Figure 11: Facebook group called “Boerelegioen” recycling the Middelburg story from 2018 again in 2025.

Figure 12: Examples of comments to recycled stories showing renewed anger by members of the Facebook group.

Returning to @visegrad24’s post that was to assert the narrative that Donald Trump drove during a press conference at the white house, they again used misleading information decontextualising the gruesome picture of a person that was bloodied next to a story about an attack at Rust en Vrede that took place in January this year. In positioning this picture along with the story of an attack on a 63- and 64-year-old couple, it is safe to assume that people who hold an a priori belief about the state of rural safety in South Africa, especially those who believe that these general safety issues are linked to a genocide of white, Afrikaans speaking people would associate the picture of the man with the story that is presented. The picture of the man is allegedly from an incident that took place in 2023 according to this post. However, the account that posted the information that claims the man in the picture is actually “Jacques Theron” from a farm attack in November 2023 looks very similar to the accounts mentioned above i.e. “Boerelegioen” and “Break the Silence about South Africa”. Therefore, before blindly accepting any of the information that they provide, it would be prudent for members of all these groups to critically analyse the content that they are seeing to confirm that the content matches the context. 

Figure 13: @visegrad24 using decontextualised imagery with misleading information about a man that had been injured.

Using these two examples alone from the @visegrad24 account, the issue with a news aggregator and curator (or, “selector” – usually a name provided to a person in the world of art or music who cherry-picks the pieces they believe an audience would love) that doesn’t take the time to verify the information that they use starts to become clear. That is because they may simply be searching for keyword phrases like “Farm attack” or “Farm murder” and are rushing to present that information to the public as the proof they need to create legitimacy regarding a preferred narrative.

Stefan Tompson is quoted in February 2025 as saying to Batya Levinthal from the Jerusalem Post “I would not define Visegrád24, nor the work we do, as aligning with journalism”. In the same interview, Tompson goes on to say “We are highly opinionated and oftentimes sarcastic. We take sides in war and don’t pretend to be some objective media because what is the point of that?” This sentiment echoes that of Elon Musk from 2023 when the BBC objected to the label “government funded media” that was added to their profile by Musk’s team. In an email to the BBC Musk explained “We are aiming for maximum transparency and accuracy. Linking to ownership and source of funds probably makes sense. I do think media organisations should be self-aware and not falsely claim the complete absence of bias. All organisations have bias, some obviously much more than others. I should note that I follow BBC News on Twitter, because I think it is among the least biased.”

Tompson himself shared the article by the Jerusalem Post on his own Facebook account the day after it was published. 

Figure 14: Stefan Tompson sharing an article written about him where he confirms that Visegrad24 don’t report objectively.

This claim by Tompson lies in stark contrast to the information presented on their website where they state, “Visegrád24 is committed to ethical journalism” and that one should support their “open-source journalism” through donations, as the website says that Visegrád24 is entirely funded by reader donations. This is not incongruous with defective arguments and how they have been defined historically.

The Intermarium foundation seeks to present the Visegrád24 campaign that it funds as a credible news source based on the appearance of the site and they appear to have endorsements by members of powerful and wealthy elites, including Elon Musk. Yet, they cherry-pick content to support particular narratives about what is taking place in other countries, and they use deceptive tactics like decontextualised videos. 

They leverage the tools that have been mentioned above and a sense of authority and now outperform traditional news media on certain global topics. 

 

Figure 15: Visegrád24 maintain on their website that they are committed to ethical reporting.

Rage Baiting, right-wing talking points and Elon Musk

While Visegrad24 is a key promoter of the white genocide conspiracy theory, their main content goes far beyond this issue, consisting of a familiar combination of rage baiting (content that induces outrage or fear) posts that emphasise right-wing talking points. This content has benefitted massively from amplification by Elon Musk.

They seek to build a narrative of transnational white victimhood by using the perceived plight of Afrikaners to drive a right-wing Polish agenda, but this is not the only global conversation to which @visegrad24 lends their influence. Based on a report compiled by Murmur for the period from 01 May 2024 to 21 May 2025, key topics discussed by the brand include political unrest, immigration policies, and global incidents, with influential figures like Elon Musk amplifying debates. Notable events driving engagement during the review period included Venezuelan protests and European terrorist attacks, often coinciding with commentary from these influential accounts. Hashtags such as #immigrationdebate and #politicalunrest highlight the widespread public interest and underscore the significance of these discussions.

Figure 16: Example of amplification posts by @elonmusk from Murmur’s dataset that allows @visegrad24’s narratives to reach a much larger audience than the followers that they have.

A breakdown of the most popular 150 posts authored by or mentioning @visegrad24 show that @visegrad24 often reposts emotionally charged, politically controversial content — especially crime or violence framed around immigration or Islam. @elonmusk boosts similar themes, either via endorsement or ironic commentary, significantly amplifying reach. The content is heavily skewed toward anti-woke, anti-Islam, pro-populist, and anti-globalist framing. Table 1 summarises the key themes in their most popular content:

Theme	Narratives
Migration, Crime & Islam	Claims of violence or unrest involving migrants or Muslims (e.g. “masked gangs shouting Allahu Akbar”)
	Accusations of grooming gangs, gang rapes, and Islamist violence in Europe
	Islamism in Bangladesh and attacks on Hindus
	Anti-immigration sentiment (e.g. “mass deportation now”)
Populism & Political Change	Praise for figures like Nayib Bukele, Donald Trump, Javier Milei
	Opposition to figures like Maduro and left-leaning European leaders
	General anti-globalism / anti-EU themes
Censorship & Free Speech	Accusations of political imprisonment in the UK and EU over social media posts
	Elon Musk tweets supporting free expression, opposing “police state” tendencies in Britain
Western Decline / Cultural Change	Cultural loss in Europe due to immigration
	Nostalgia for pre-Islamic Iran or “Old Europe”
	Criticism of Western liberalism and multi-culturalism
Conspiracy & Elite Influence	Soros and Gates meddling in EU politics
	Election interference in California and Venezuela
	Satirical or conspiratorial takes on media narratives
Violence, Terror, and War	October 7 Hamas attack references
	Islamic terrorism, both real and exaggerated claims
	Scenes from Syria, Israel, and Gaza used to evoke outrage
Gender, Children & Morality	Anti-paedophilia and anti-child marriage sentiment
	Emotional appeal stories involving children harmed by violence
	Vivid individual testimonials (e.g. Lara Logan, Yazidi victims)

Table 1: AI-extracted topics from the top 150 most reposted posts authored by, or mentioning, @visegrad24

Further analysis reveals Visegrád24 as a pivotal player in attempts to shape discourse around political and immigration issues, with influential figures such as Elon Musk playing a key role in amplifying these conversations. Patterns indicate a strong public interest in geopolitical events, driven by influential accounts. This dynamic underscores the importance of understanding community interactions and influencers’ roles in shaping public opinion, with implications for policymakers and stakeholders navigating these complex social media landscapes, according to Murmur.

To visualise Visegrad24’s footprint on X below, accounts are connected through their interactions. An interaction is counted when accounts repost or mention each other. These interactions create a network on which a community detection algorithm is run to identify communities of like-minded accounts. It is important to understand the information that is shared by these like-minded accounts to decipher if echo chambers and other problematic structures for social media consumers are forming that could lead to an overly biased and fragmented online society that breaks out into general discourse and impacts democratic process or social cohesion. 

According to the interaction network graph below @visegrad24’s community dominates the centre. This is expected as the dataset consist primarily of posts that were authored by, or mentioned, @visegrad24. Elon Musk’s Community (blue) is another key community adjacent to the centre, with visible connections to Visegrád24’s Community. No clear ideological divisions like liberal/conservative are evident, but topical distinctions, such as migration and geopolitical tensions, are clear across communities.

Figure 17: Interaction network visualisation of @visegrad24’s ‘footprint’ on X based on 212,791 posts (1% sample) by 144,439 unique X users between 1 May 2024 – 21 May 2025

During the time period that was analysed for the X posts, significant conversations included political upheaval in Venezuela, European political dynamics, and activities in the Middle East, reflecting global concerns on democracy and governance. These can be seen in the event summary graph of the Visegrád24 community below.

Figure 18: Event summary captured in posts from Visegrad24’s X community

Other recurrent themes within the dataset involved Canadian and European security policies, international censorship debates, and diaspora protests. Key figures, such as opposition leaders and royalty, frequently fuel discourse, while tensions involving migration and international safety, particularly concerning Islamist influences, remain prominent topics. During the reporting period, there was considerable engagement with hashtags related to protests and statements from influential individuals like @PahlaviReza.

A shift to the Middle East

Looking at more recent global events, @visegrad24 has been weighing in heavily on the Israel-Iran conflict with a clearly biased angle. Many of their posts seek to portray the Islamic leadership as weak, using video content of the son of the former Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was ousted from power in 1979 and forced into exile with his family. Content of the son of the former Shah is now being used to support claims that a regime change is coming as @visegrad24 refer to him as the “Crown Prince” even though the monarchy was abolished at the time that his father was ousted.

Figure 19: Examples of posts and comments on @visegrad24 content on X that favours a political candidate.

This positioning of a political figure by the brand is worth noting given that Visegrád24 is a campaign that is being funded by a section 501(c)(3) in the USA. According to the IRS:

Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.

Returning to Iran, where the US have recently used military force to bomb nuclear infrastructure, the angle that @visegrad24 is taking should be considered biased and in favour of a specific political candidate. Firstly, the content that @visegrad24 drives aligns with a conservative, Christian agenda that is anti-migrant and anti-Islamist. Secondly, Tompson visits official events in Israel and has been very outspoken about his pro-Israeli stance. In one interview, he claimed that Western civilisation comes from Israel because it is the birthplace of Judaism, which led to Christendom and, according to Tompson, without white Christendom “there is no West”. Next, Tompson has engaged with voices in the UAE early in 2025 who maintain a fervent narrative against the “Muslim Bortherhood”. Lastly, while driving pro-Pahlavi content that seeks to reinstate the family of the ousted Shah back into power, no effort is made to explain by @visegrad24 or Tompson why the family was removed from power in the first place. There is a reliance on Islamophobia and terrorism to justify why power should be taken away from the Islamic leaders and returned to the family of the Shah.

A political activist named Esmaeil Khataie, who was imprisoned and beaten for not conforming to the rules that were being dictated in the 1960s and 70s, which led to the Islamic revolution in Iran, explained that under the Shah’s system of governance, if you were not part of the political elite or one of their family members, there was no opportunity for you to enter the world of political leadership in Iran. Khataie has explained that young Iranians like him were instead offered positions in the army so that they could defend Iranian interests while the Shah and those closest to him reaped the rewards. 

This means that, much like the lack of enrichment that beneficiaries of the Apartheid regime have been forced to deal with since the problematic system of governance ended and South Africa became a democratic republic, sycophants of the Shah and his immediate descendants are presenting a counter-narrative to Islamic rule while omitting facts about why the Shah was overthrown in the first place. 

Take for example an interview that Chief Editor of Visegrád24, Adam Starzynski, recently had with Iranian-born British national, Younes Sadaghiani. In the interview, Sadaghiani is quoted as saying that “a majority of Iranians support Israel because they despise the Islamic Republic of Iran” and that “if the Islamic Republic of Iran falls, it will be the biggest economic opportunity for the world, and it would be amazing for the region.” 

The use of local voices to establish legitimacy regarding the narrative that they favour and drive through their channels is something that Visegrád24 have learnt to do well. So well in fact that they have for months now been engaging both pro-Israeli voices and members of the UAE as they take “V24 to the next level” according to Dan Feferman.

Figure 20: Dan Feferman of ME24 hinting at the future of the Intermarium campaigns

Figure 21: Stefan Tompson meeting with members of the UAE before ME24 is launched

Feferman is an Israeli-American who has co-founded Middle East 24 (ME24) that is powered by the “proven success of Visegrád24”. ME24 is positioned on the website of the Intermarium Foundation as one of its campaigns, alongside Visegrád24. However, ME24 is referred to as a “digital war room built to defend the truth”.

Figure 22: The new Intermarium campaign Middle East 24, positioned as a digital war room on its website.

The founder of the Intermarium Foundation, the organisation that created the Visegrád24 and Middle East24 campaigns, Dominik Andrzejczuk was also personally active on the Visegrád24 website. An archived snapshot of the main page from the end of December of 2024 shows five articles (we identified six in total) authored by Andrzejczuk. Credited as “Venture Capitalist”, he shared his personal perspective on the growth of Poland and much more than that. One article on illegal migration to Britain included a misleading claim that “Over the past three years, Britain has received an estimated 750,000 illegal migrants” – he distorted the facts by presenting the total estimated number of undocumented populations in the country as a volume of people who recently migrated to the country. In another article he platformed the anti-immigration views of controversial Polish Member of European Parliament, Domink Tarczyński, a figure twice convicted in court for public falsehoods and best known for inflammatory remarks like: “Not even one Muslim will come to Poland.” Why Andrzejczuk holds such an anti-immigrant point of view is very interesting to know more about because it will allow regulators and critics to understand if he is really operating from a deeply held ideological stand point about the preservation of Polish culture or whether he has made use of such narratives to drive his own personal or financial interests. This is because in an interview on thefinanser.com from 2023, when asked to tell Chris Skinner about himself, Dominik said the following:

“I was born in Poland, but my family emigrated when I was less than a year old. Although I have Polish roots, I largely identify as an American: I watch American football, follow baseball, and enjoy other typical American pastimes. Growing up, I lived in a Polish neighborhood in Philadelphia. My parents and I resided in the US without legal status for six years until they were fortunate to secure green cards through the 1995 lottery.”

The last three articles by Andrzejczuk seem closer to his expertise: quantum computing. One of those is a raving profile of Oxford Ionics – a company that Atmos Ventures invests in with money from the Polish Development Fund and for which Andrzejczuk was a Board observer. As of today, searching his name on the Visegrad page shows no results.

Structured for success in a social media ecosystem

The formula of highly partisan rage bait and right-wing talking points that Visegrád24 are using to drive their openly biased reporting has been successful (in no small part due to Elon Musk’s amplification), and as we have seen above, is extending outside of their initial Central European interests, to South Africa, and to initiatives like a digital war room in the Middle East. The primary organisation that is funding the Visegrád24 campaign, The Intermarium Foundation, claims prominently on the home page of their website “MAINSTREAM MEDIA IS DEAD. WE’RE BUILDING WHAT’S NEXT.” This seems absurd because while making use of the signals of a mainstream news media source to establish authenticity, they have managed to attract the kind of attention and engagement that should lead to their content now being labelled mainstream as their structure allows for the direction of the masses. How they achieve this seems quite simple.

Figure 23: Proclamation on Intermarium Foundation’s website claiming that mainstream media is dead.

As a starting point, but not necessarily the ultimate secret to their success, they make use of X’s gold tick feature. The gold tick on X denotes a verified organisation and comes with a hefty price, especially for a small news media account that claims to rely entirely on donations from readers. However, there are some serious perks that come with paying the price for a gold tick mark on your X profile. Firstly, you receive $12 000 in ad credit, which is roughly R215 000, even though the annual fee for full, premium access is R184 000. X’s core business is advertising. The cost of verification of an account with a gold tick is designed to be absorbed by the value an organisation receives in ad credits. This creates a compelling offer for businesses that want to be seen as legitimate and reach a wider audience on the platform. 

The benefits of having a gold tick verified account include getting more attention and visibility. Posts from these accounts are ranked higher on recommendation lists and search results, creating increased visibility that leads to more attention and engagement. Both CNN and the BBC have also started to make use of the gold tick feature. However, as there is less amplification of their content by influential figures like the owner of X, Elon Musk, Visegrád24 has outperformed these long standing news rooms on topics like the Israel-Gaza war.

X verifies each account with a gold tick mark for eligibility. However, the criteria that this eligibility is based on is not difficult to pull together. Hence, although someone may not have any real brick and mortar presence that would grant them credibility and accountability in the real world, virtual realms like social media platforms are poised for obscurity in the world of news media, even though they claim they want greater transparency.

Take for example @visegrad24. While the founder, Stefan Tompson, says that he and Visegrád24 are based in Warsaw, they hire copywriters from all over the world, like Heike Du Toit in Pretoria, whose appears to operate from the ideological standpoint of “vir God” and “Vir Vaderland” (For God and Fatherland) according to the bio on an X profile in her name.

Figure 24: X profile in the name of another South African Visegrád24 writer

Her role at Visegrád24 is to find news for X and create viral threads. However, this is not necessarily the life she envisioned when she spoke to Netwerk24 in 2020 to explain that she was studying teaching and that she was doing it because “Ek wil ‘n inspirasie wees vir kinders en lewens verander” (“I want to be an inspiration for children and change lives.”). It is unclear how Heike went from wanting to change the world through education to creating viral content for a problematic right-wing online brand, but being in this role has allowed her to develop certain noteworthy skills that appear to be necessary for Visegrád24 content creators.

Figure 25: Skills required for a Visegrád24 content creator

Speaking to Jan Gerber, a political journalist at leading South African media outlet News24, SEO and SEO copywriting are not things that are normally considered by journalists at all when writing political news pieces. Gerber is choosing to report factually about the current state of affairs in the country and globally, which doesn’t require a strategy for optimization, like tabloid or click-bait type media might. Writing to expose the truth within journalistic standards and writing so that your content gets the most views through better search engine placement are different skillsets because it is possible to forego pertinent information or overly emphasise other information when news media is postured by keywords, rather than the facts.

Apart from hiring SEO copywriters to create content that is optimised for virility online and the use of the gold tick verified benefits on X, success for the brand could simply lie in its donations-based model, which creates the impression of being funded by the people and therefore expressing the views of the people. However, if the one subscription that they have on X is anything to go by or the fact that they’ve received 0 in Bitcoin or hold only a balance of 0.000585381981933000 in Ethereum (~1.41 USD/~25 ZAR)8 then perhaps, they are not entirely funded by the donations of their readers as they claim to be on their site.

*These balances were last reviewed by the researchers for this report on 24 June 2025.

Figure 26: Visegrád24 X profile that references bitcoin and shows I subscriber.

A donation from any country to Visegrád24 through their website, would go to the Intermarium Foundation. However, the validity of the claim that the donation is tax exempt must be further tested. A simple diagram of how donations are made to the Intermarium Foundation with fundraising software for non-profits called Givebutter is shown below. It depicts an internet user from any number of countries, who clicks on the word “donate” on the Visegrád24 website and how that donation goes to the Intermarium Foundation in the USA that powers both Visegrad24 and MiddleEast24.

Figure 27: Visual representation showing how donations from Visegrád24 flow to the tax exempt US organisation, the Intermarium Foundation.

Following a consultation with a CFO for non-profits in South Africa, it was confirmed that in South Africa, you generally cannot get a tax rebate (deduction) for a donation made to a Section 501(c)(3) company registered in the USA. For a donation to be tax-deductible in South Africa under Section 18A of the Income Tax Act, it must be made to a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) that is approved by the South African Revenue Service (SARS). For example, if a South African were to donate money to Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF), they are not issued a tax certificate from the main body in Geneva. They instead receive a section 18A tax certificate from MSF Southern Africa, which holds an address in Marshalltown, Johannesburg, a contact number and the name of the responsible person for the fund in Southern Africa who may be contacted for any queries.

Conclusion

This report has shed crucial light on the intricate operations of Visegrád24, a news aggregator that, despite its claims of independence and reader funding, is deeply intertwined with Polish state funding and a US-based tax-exempt non-profit, the Intermarium Foundation. Our investigation reveals a sophisticated strategy to push a global right-wing narrative, often through the use of decontextualised information and misleading content.

Key Salient Points:

• Hidden Funding and Ownership: Visegrád24, while presenting itself as a grassroots, reader-funded initiative, benefits from indirect funding linked to the Polish government for example through grants to foundations like Action-Life. The Intermarium Foundation, a US 501(c)(3) non-profit, serves as the parent organisation, raising questions about the transparency of its financial model and its adherence to tax-exempt regulations regarding political campaigning.
• Narrative Manipulation and Disinformation: The report highlights Visegrád24’s deliberate efforts to propagate narratives, such as the false “white genocide” in South Africa, by selectively using and decontextualising information. This is exemplified by the use of outdated or unrelated images and stories to fuel a specific agenda, as seen with the “farm attack” posts.
• Strategic Amplification and Network Building: Visegrád24 leverages social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), utilising features like the gold tick for increased visibility and engagement. Its content is further amplified by influential figures, including Elon Musk, allowing its narratives to reach a significantly wider audience and even outperform traditional news outlets on certain global topics.
• Ideological Alignment and Global Reach: The platform’s content consistently aligns with anti-migrant, anti-Islam, and pro-Israel sentiments, extending its influence beyond Central Europe to critical global issues in the Middle East and Africa. The establishment of Middle East 24 (ME24) further solidifies this expansion and ideological commitment.
• Exploitation of Tax-Exempt Status: The report raises concerns about the Intermarium Foundation’s potential violation of US tax laws, which prohibit 501(c)(3) organizations from engaging in political campaign activities. The promotion of political figures and biased content, particularly concerning the Israel-Iran conflict, directly challenges these regulations.

For South Africans, this report is vital in exposing how external actors manipulate narratives to sow discord and push a divisive agenda, particularly concerning sensitive issues like land and perceived racial victimhood. Understanding these tactics empowers citizens to critically evaluate the information they consume and recognise attempts to exploit local issues for broader geopolitical aims.

For the global social media community, this investigation serves as a critical case study in the evolving landscape of hybrid information warfare. It demonstrates how seemingly innocuous news aggregators can be part of a larger, coordinated effort to influence public opinion, bypass traditional journalistic ethics, and leverage legal loopholes (like non-profit status) to operate with limited oversight. The report underscores the urgent need for greater transparency from social media platforms and accountability from organizations that claim to be legitimate news sources.

More work needs to be done:

The findings of this report are just the beginning. More extensive research is needed to fully understand the tactics, techniques, and practices employed by sites and X accounts like Visegrád24. This includes:

• Deeper Financial Audits: A thorough examination of the financial flows to and from the Intermarium Foundation and its associated campaigns is crucial to ascertain the full extent of their funding sources and ensure compliance with tax regulations.
• Network Analysis of Associated Accounts: Further investigation into the coordinated activities of interconnected social media accounts and groups (like “Break the Silence about South Africa” and “Boerelegioen” on Facebook) is necessary to identify potential echo chambers and coordinated inauthentic behaviour.
• Impact Assessment on Democratic Processes: Research should quantify the real-world impact of these narratives on political discourse, public opinion, and democratic processes in affected regions, particularly in South Africa and the Middle East.
• Regulatory Framework Development: This report highlights the urgent need for robust international regulatory frameworks that can address the challenges posed by cross-border disinformation campaigns, particularly those operating under the guise of non-profit or journalistic entities.

By continuing to investigate and expose these sophisticated influence operations, we can collectively work towards a more informed, resilient, and truthful global social media environment.

Copies of this report were sent via email to Visegrad24, The Polish Development Fund and the Action Life Foundation prior to its publishing to request for corrections to any of the facts contained in this document. Should any correction be received, this research will be updated with the new information.

This report was prepared for the Centre for Information Integrity in Africa at Stellenbosch University through the collaborative efforts of:

• Yossabel Chetty, Researcher, Centre for Information Integrity in Africa.
• Tadeusz Michrowski, Investigative journalist based in Poland. Analyst cooperating with the Polish Centre for African Studies.
• Herman Wasserman, Director, Centre for Information Integrity in Africa.
• Murmur Intelligence.
• This investigation benefited from initial discussions on the topic of Visegrad24 with Murmur Intelligence at the Centre for Analytics and Behavorial Change.