This week, the Washington Examiner uncovered “Disinformation Inc.” and how it makes money blacklisting conservative “disinformation” spreaders. One of those “disinformation” trackers has multiple ties to none other than liberal billionaire George Soros. 
The Examiner released a Feb. 9 exclusive about how “well-funded ‘disinformation’ tracking groups are part of a stealth operation blacklisting and trying to defund conservative media” by working to deprive them of large amounts of advertising revenue.
The Global Disinformation Index (GDI) is a leftist British group with two U.S. nonprofit affiliates the Examiner identified. GDI has three advisory board members with ties to leftist billionaire George Soros, according to MRC Free Speech America research.
“The radical left knows better than anyone that the best way to upend America and destroy freedom is to muzzle the voices of their opposition,” Vice President of MRC Free Speech America & MRC Business Dan Schneider said. “They masquerade as defenders of information, but we all know that they’re just authoritarian thugs.”
Major advertising companies are reportedly seeking greater “guidance” on combating supposed “disinformation” online, the Examiner reported. The so-called “nonpartisan” groups to which the advertising companies turn, however, then reportedly compile “secret website blacklists” that target conservative media. The goal is to shut down speech that the groups disapprove of, according to the memos, emails and sources collected by the Examiner. GDI is one such powerful entity.
GDI has an advisory panel with three Soros-tied members. Advisory Panel member Finn Heinreich is Soros’ Open Society Initiative for Europe division director for transparency, accountability, and participation. This directly makes Heinrich one of Soros’ flunkies. GDI lists Ben Nimmo as part of the Atlantic Council on its website. His profile states he was a nonresident senior fellow with the leftist organization, which is funded by Soros (the Examiner said he also works for Meta).
Cris Tardáguila, another GDI advisory panel member, was the former director of the Soros-funded Poynter Institute’s International Fact Checking Network (IFCN). GDI currently shows Tardáguila representing the IFCN on its website.
Soros’ Open Society Foundations (OSF) gave IFCN $492,000 between 2016 and 2020, as MRC Business noted in its report: George Soros: Propaganda Powerhouse from Jan. 2023. OSF also gave $768,085 to the Atlantic Council between 2016 and 2021.
Mike Benz, the State Department's ex-deputy assistant for internal communications and information policy, called the work of outfits such as NewsGuard and the Soros-tied GDI “devastating” in comments to the Examiner. “The implementation of ad revenue crushing sentinels like News[G]uard, Global Disinformation Index, and the like has completely crippled the potential of alternative news sources to compete on an even economic playing field with approved media outlets like CNN and [T]he New York Times.”
MRC Free Speech America has repeatedly shown just how biased NewsGuard is. The ratings firm rated left-leaning outlets much higher than right-leaning outlets. It also boasts of helping ad companies divert money from so-called “misinformation” online.
And given the glaring ties to leftist groups, it should come as no surprise that “all of the websites that GDI ranks as the ‘least risky’ lean left in their news coverage — minus [T]he Wall Street Journal,” reported the Examiner.
GDI’s website claims its mission is to “remove the financial incentive" to spread alleged "disinformation." It adds that its "core output" is a "dynamic exclusion list,” rating news outlets on the basis of a supposed “risk” factor of “disinformation.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact your representatives and demand that government agencies and Big Tech be held to account to uphold the First Amendment. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
