FAQ
Answers about MAP Verified™, pricing, the API, MAP Context™, the newsletter, and compliance — pulled directly from the same pages where each topic lives.
MAP Verified™ — Frequently Asked Questions
What is MAP Verified™?
MAP Verified™ documents the observable information environment around a news URL or publisher — origin, attribution, specificity, timing, framing, context change, and information relationships — and records the result on a hash-chained verification ledger. It does not determine whether content is true, false, biased, or trustworthy; it documents what is observable so readers can form their own judgment.
How is a MAP context record built?
A MAP context record is built by automated, rule-based extraction code that reads the page's HTML and metadata: publisher, author, publish date, outbound references, structural framing cues, and (when a prior record exists) what has changed since MAP last recorded that URL. It runs on MAP's AWS Lambda infrastructure. No generative AI writes the record text, and each record is a point-in-time snapshot.
Are MAP Verified™ context records a certified fact?
No. MAP Verified™ context records are produced by automated, rule-based extraction (no generative AI writes the record text). The extraction is heuristic, so records are informational and can be incomplete or wrong. They document observable characteristics at one point in time only — not certified fact, a legal determination, or professional advice — and should not be the sole basis for a consequential decision.
How do I report an inaccurate context record?
Report it through the contact form with the specific URL, the error, and supporting evidence. MAP aims to review reports within 5 business days (a target, not a guarantee); if confirmed, MAP's practice is to record the correction as a new ledger entry rather than edit the earlier one. The ledger does not yet link a correction to the entry it corrects. See the Corrections Policy for the full process.
What is the MAP Verification Ledger?
The ledger is an append-oriented table operated by MAP. Hashed entries are chained to one another. Older entries that have no hash are not part of the chain. MAP runs a daily continuity check and does not publish its detailed results, and MAP does not publish the data needed to recompute the hashes, so continuity is MAP's own report and readers cannot yet recompute it from published data. MAP's practice is to add a new entry rather than edit an earlier one, so a correction is a new entry. MAP operates the ledger itself, and the daily continuity check described above reports the exceptions and gaps it has found. The ledger does not yet link a correction to the entry it corrects. The running total is available at https://mediaalertpress.com/wp-json/map/v1/ledger/stats.
Pricing — Frequently Asked Questions
What's included in the Free plan?
The Free plan costs $0 and requires no credit card. It includes the full seven-dimension context record for a URL you check, an append-oriented ledger record, and access to the verification archive. The allowance is 3 Context Verifications per week on the keyed API, enforced with a weekly reset.
What does the Plus plan include?
Plus is planned at $29/month, billed monthly, cancel anytime, with an allowance of 50 Context Verifications per week on the keyed API (enforced, resets weekly) for individual professionals. Plus is not open for purchase yet: leave your email on the Contact page and we will tell you when it opens. PDF export is not yet available.
What does the Professional plan include?
Professional is planned at $79/month, billed monthly, cancel anytime, with an allowance of 250 Context Verifications per week on the keyed API (enforced, resets weekly) for journalists, attorneys, and analysts. Professional is not open for purchase yet: leave your email on the Contact page and we will tell you when it opens.
What about Team, Business, and Enterprise plans?
Team ($249/mo) and Business ($999/mo) cannot be purchased online yet. Their team-level features are not yet available: team accounts, an organization dashboard, priority processing, dedicated infrastructure, white label, and dedicated support. Contact us to discuss either plan. Enterprise is a custom quote starting at $15,000/month for the MAP Operating System, arranged by contacting us directly. The Intelligence API ($2,000/month per vertical, or $8,000/month for all six verticals) is planned and not yet available. White label is not available to organizations eligible for MAP Verified publisher certification. Enterprise does not yet include a service-level agreement or a named account manager, bulk verification is not self-serve, and there are no role-based team permissions.
How do I get started?
Start on the Free plan by verifying a URL directly — no signup required. Plus and Professional are not open for purchase yet; contact us and we will tell you when self-service checkout opens. Team, Business, Enterprise and the Intelligence API are arranged by contacting us.
MAP API — Frequently Asked Questions
What are the MAP API rate limits?
The keyed /verify endpoint (POST https://apimediaalertpress.com/v1/verify) is limited by a weekly quota that depends on your plan; requests beyond the quota receive an HTTP 429 response. The free on-site checker is limited per IP address. The public GET endpoints (/feed/signals and the record lookups) are also rate limited and return HTTP 429 when a limit is exceeded; exact figures are not guaranteed and may change.
Can I resell or redistribute MAP API data?
Raw API responses may not be resold, sublicensed, or redistributed as a standalone data product without a separate commercial data license. The one exception is MAP ledger data from /ledger/stats, which is published as open data under CC-BY 4.0.
Does the API guarantee accurate results?
No. The API and all data it returns are provided "as is" and "as available." Verification results and context records come from automated, rule-based extraction and are heuristic, informational snapshots — not certified fact, a legal determination, or professional advice — and MAP does not warrant continuous availability or accuracy.
What attribution is required when using MAP data?
If you publish or display MAP Verified™ context records or signal data obtained through the API, you must attribute Media Alert Press LLC / MAP Verified™ as the source.
MAP Context™ — Frequently Asked Questions
What is MAP Context™?
MAP Context™ is a single-URL context record: seven observable frames (origin, attribution, specificity, timing, framing, context change and information relationships) produced by automated, rule-based extraction for a URL you check. It is structured information to help readers and researchers, not an editorial verdict. The broader modules (media and source context reports, narrative analysis, transparency explanations) are not yet available.
What are the five MAP Context™ modules?
MAP Context™ is a single-URL context record: seven observable frames produced by automated extraction. Its five named modules are Context Analysis, Media Context Reports, Narrative Analysis, Source Context Reports and Transparency Explanations. Only parts of Context Analysis and Narrative Analysis exist today; the others are not yet available. MAP does not compare coverage across outlets or score sources.
Is MAP Context™ an editorial verdict?
No. MAP describes MAP Context™ as "not an editorial verdict engine" — it surfaces factual, structural signals so readers and platforms can assess content with more information, rather than issuing a true-or-false judgment.
MAP Newsletter — Frequently Asked Questions
What does the MAP Newsletter include?
You choose from three things: a MAP Context Report on Mondays (new context records, observed changes between repeat observations of the same URL, the most-referenced outside domains, and any Publisher Verifications issued that week); a Filings & Markets Brief on Wednesdays (SEC 8-K filings that reference a merger or acquisition agreement, matched by keyword, plus public Treasury, exchange-rate and economic data); and an alert when MAP issues a Publisher Verification. The Context Report is sent only if MAP observed at least 3 changes or issued a Publisher Verification in that window, and the Filings & Markets Brief only if at least 4 market indicators are available or a matching 8-K was filed.
How do I unsubscribe from the MAP Newsletter?
Every newsletter issue has an unsubscribe link, and unsubscribing deletes your subscription. We send one confirmation email first and no newsletter until you confirm your address, and the issues are plain text with no tracking images.
Compliance — Frequently Asked Questions
Does MAP hold SOC 2 or ISO certification?
No. Media Alert Press LLC does not currently hold SOC 2, ISO/IEC 27001, or ISO/IEC 42001 certification, and does not undergo annual third-party security audits at this time.
What security measures does MAP actually have in place?
Sitewide HTTPS/TLS, standard security headers (CSP, HSTS, X-Frame-Options, X-Content-Type-Options, Referrer-Policy), XML-RPC disabled, API rate limiting, and a least-privilege IAM policy for cloud infrastructure roles. Subprocessors used are AWS, Google Analytics, and Stripe.