NewsGuard and Uncle Sam: Is this just the beginning of the end for the First Amendment? (Full Series)
Nutrition Facts | Vitamin Deficiency Nutrition
Historical Hoax | Disclosure
According to the company’s vision statement, NewsGuard Technologies provides “transparent tools to combat misinformation for readers, brands and democracy.”[1] But while the company has portrayed itself as Captain America standing up to the enemies of democracy, it has also been named in two federal lawsuits that expose how its tools are being used in a broader attack on fundamental American civil liberties.
In December 2023, the publishers of the center-right Federalist newspaper and Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire, along with the state of Texas, filed a lawsuit against the U.S. State Department, alleging that the government promoted and funded “blacklists” that were created separately by Newsguard and the international nonprofit Global Disinformation Index.[2] The complaint alleges the scheme was “one of the most egregious government efforts to censor the American press in American history.”
In October 2023, the left-leaning Consortium News filed a similar lawsuit, naming NewsGuard as a co-defendant, alleging that “NewsGuard and the United States have not only violated the First Amendment, but have also defamed and created a false impression of Consortium News by impugning the patriotism and loyalty of Consortium News and its many reporters and contributors.”[3]
The indisputable facts now known about NewsGuard’s tool and its federal approval highlight the government’s disturbing attempt to trample freedom of expression. Regardless of how the current legal dispute is resolved, especially if the government prevails, it would prove that censorship has become official government policy.
Nutrition Facts
Both lawsuits cite government funding of NewsGuard and its “nutrition labels.”[4] This ranking of nearly all commonly accessed news and sources on the internet is done by what NewsGuard claims to be a team of “trained journalists,” who assign a rating from 0 to 100 based on “non-political standards of journalistic practice.” (Consortium News’ lawsuit targets NewsGuard’s use of a related tool, NewsGuard’s “misinformation fingerprinting.”)[5]
In addition to government support, NewsGuard makes money by generating reports for companies that want to “avoid advertising on misinformation, disinformation and untrusted news sources that don’t meet their brand safety standards.”[6]
This alone should scare tax-payers and First Amendment-respecting people away. The U.S. Constitution gives the American people the power to decide what is “misinformation.” The government cannot do that for the American people. And according to a Twitter Files report by Lee Fan, NewsGuard estimates the speech censorship market to be worth $1.74 billion, so it’s not going to be profitable for private companies that the government wants to seize.[7] But the government contract gives it credibility, and NewsGuard hopes it will be widely used in government-run libraries, schools and universities as media literacy courses become mandatory, and it expects extra business from marketing companies that oversee most of the world’s online advertising.
It’s no surprise that NewsGuard’s largest investor is Publicis Groupe, “the largest marketing agency conglomerate in the world,” according to Fang. The company has already “integrated NewsGuard’s technology into a subsidiary that places online ads.” Fang added that just as NewsGuard’s government clients can use NewsGuard to suppress information the regime doesn’t like, companies like Publicis can use NewsGuard’s services to protect its client, Pfizer. Another investor Fang identified is a Washington lobbyist for the parent company of “the much-criticized Chinese-owned social media platform Tik Tok,” who is no doubt also evaluating NewsGuard’s ability to help some sites and hurt others.[8]
NewsGuard’s labeling of the product as “nutritional” highlights something even more alarming.
The NewsGuard app is free to download for individuals. The app adds to your internet browser’s search function. Once loaded, most news and information search results are accompanied by nutritional labels. Anything produced by the Daily Wire or Consortium News carries a prominent warning label: “Proceed with caution.” All content from The Federalist is subject to the highest rating: “Proceed with extreme caution.”[9]
Long before this apparent blacklisting of advertisers became the target of two federal censorship lawsuits, these nutrition label warnings were already built into so many web browsers, millions of which are used by your children and grandchildren in public schools.
The company signed a partnership agreement with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) in January 2022.[10] In a triumphant press release, NewsGuard co-founder Steven Brill claimed that the “News Credibility Ratings” were already being used in “800 public libraries” and “dozens of public schools and universities.”
As for the future, Brill claimed, “My social studies teacher recently told me that her students are using ‘newsguard’ as a verb — that is, they ‘newsguard’ when they see something online,” and predicted that the deal with the AFT would “ensure that millions more American students will also be ‘newsguarding.'”
NewsGuard also boasts partnerships with organizations such as the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of State, Google, Microsoft, the World Health Organization, and the University of Michigan.[11]
In the next article, NewsGuard’s scoring of nutritional facts labels appears to be heavily biased towards leading figures in the major government media. The Washington Post.
Note
[1] NewsGuard Technologies, Website, https://www.newsguardtech.com/.
[2] Nate Raymond, “Texas claims US State Department funds tech that censors conservative news,” Reuters, December 6, 2023, https://www.reuters.com/legal/government/texas-claims-us-state-department-funds-tech-that-censors-conservative-news-2023-12-06/; The Daily Wire v. U.S. Department of StateU.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Dec. 5, 2023, https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/gkplxnbrdpb/DailyWire-v-State-final-1.pdf.
[3] Union for Independent Journalism v. United StatesU.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, October 12, 2023, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mmMTpNSN4PavJe6dv64HYuBuLY4T2iBn/view?pli=1 .
[4] NewsGuard Technologies, “NewsGuard Ratings,” https://www.newsguardtech.com/solutions/newsguard/.
[5] NewsGuard Technologies, “Misinformation Fingerprints,” https://www.newsguardtech.com/solutions/misinformation-fingerprints/.
[6] NewsGuard Technologies, “Do you read every news site that advertises? We do,” https://www.newsguardtech.com/solutions/newsguard-for-advertising/.
[7] Lee Fang, “NewsGuard’s For-Profit Censorship Model Blends Government and Corporate Power,” LeeFang.com, November 15, 2023, https://www.leefang.com/p/newsguards-for-profit-censorship.
[8] Ibid.
[9] NewsGuard Technologies, “Website Rating Process and Criteria,” https://www.newsguardtech.com/ratings/rating-process-criteria/.
[10] American Federation of Teachers, “AFT Partners with NewsGuard to Combat Misinformation Online,” January 25, 2022, https://www.aft.org/press-release/aft-partners-newsguard-combat-misinformation-online.
[11] NewsGuard Technologies, “Partners”, https://www.newsguardtech.com/#:~:text=false%20narratives%20online-,Partners,-
