May 13, 2024 - 9:00pm
The Global Disinformation Index, an organisation that blacklists disfavoured media organisations, has removed several funders — including those affiliated with the US and UK governments — from its website following an UnHerd investigation.
The GDI aims to disrupt the business model of outlets accused of disinformation by blocking their advertising revenue, producing a list of supposed offenders for advertisers to avoid working with under the auspices of “brand safety”. Its algorithm for determining which content to defund doesn’t merely target false information, but also anything deemed part of an “adversarial narrative”, which in practice has meant targeting gender-critical and conservative ideas. UnHerd, for example, was blacklisted for publishing Kathleen Stock and other gender-critical columnists.
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, and Disinfo Cloud, all of which were listed as funders in March, are no longer on the site. However, both the European Union and German Foreign Office remain listed, under a new heading cryptically entitled “select past and present funders”.
Disinfo Cloud, which was created and funded by the US State Department, is currently at the centre of a lawsuit from the Daily Wire and the Federalist over the government’s alleged funding of censorship projects targeting American speech. The conservative American media outlets are suing the federal government for allegedly throttling their journalism by funding and promoting Disinfo Cloud, which in turn funded the GDI.
British Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron confirmed that the FCDO had stopped funding the GDI last year in a recent letter obtained by UnHerd, commenting that efforts to counter foreign disinformation needed to align with free speech values and underlining that there were no plans to resume funding.
The Times today ran a leading editorial against the GDI, citing the UnHerd case as an example of “stymying valuable and independent-minded journalism on the basis of little more than ideological prejudice”.
Craig Newmark Philanthropies was contacted for comment.
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