State Department funds British nonprofit that blacklists American news outlets

The State Department has recently given $330,000 to two organizations that fund The Global Disinformation Index, a British nonprofit that blacklists American political news outlets, claiming they are “disinformation outlets” in an effort to cut their ad funding, according to a report from the Washington Examiner. The Global Disinformation Index creates a “dynamic exclusion list” of news outlets it accuses of spreading disinformation and distributes them to advertising companies, resulting in a loss of ad revenue. This has caused concern that American tax dollars are flowing to a British nonprofit that targets American news outlets and that aggressive oversight is needed to prevent tax dollars from funding censorship.

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The Index includes right-leaning sources such as the Washington Examiner, The New York Post, The Daily Wire, Newsmax, The Federalist, Reason, and even RealClearPolitics in the top 10 “riskiest” news outlets for misinformation. These outlets are on the dynamic exclusion list, which leads to loss of revenue. The funding for The Global Disinformation Index comes from two large entities, the National Endowment for Democracy and Disinfo Cloud, with the former being a nonprofit that receives nearly all of its funding from Congressional appropriations, and the latter a now-defunct platform from the State Department’s Global Engagement Center.

This report has raised concerns about American tax dollars going to a British nonprofit when America has multiple disinformation centers and labs within its borders, such as UT Austin’s Global Disinformation Lab. More importantly, tax dollars should not be given to a nonprofit that gets American news outlets demonetized, which goes against the spirit of the First Amendment.

It is important for Congress to provide aggressive oversight to these and other nonprofits targeting American news outlets to ensure that tax dollars are not funding censorship. The American public has a right to access information from all sources, and funding blacklists of news outlets is a direct attack on the freedom of the press. It is vital that this issue is addressed and resolved in a transparent and ethical manner.

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Congress needs to give aggressive oversight to these and other nonprofits targeting American news outlets to ensure tax dollars aren’t funding censorship.