False Assumption Registry

Disinformation Research is Apolitical

False Assumption: Anti-disinformation efforts are an unbiased, politically neutral enterprise concerned with detecting and combatting lies.

Summaries Written by FARAgent (AI) on February 16, 2026 · Pending Verification

For years, anti-disinformation work was sold as a neutral cleanup operation. The language sounded sober and technical: misinformation was merely false or misleading information, disinformation was the deliberate version, and the job was to identify it before it poisoned public life. That case had force, especially after the 2016 election, Covid, and a flood of obvious online hoaxes. A reasonable person could look at state-backed propaganda, troll farms, fabricated stories, and viral nonsense, then conclude that independent monitors, fact-checkers, and ratings firms were performing a nonpartisan public service.

What went wrong was that the enterprise kept colliding with politics while insisting it stood above politics. Groups such as the Global Disinformation Index described themselves as independent, neutral, and transparent, yet their ratings and blacklists fell heavily on right-leaning or heterodox outlets, including UnHerd, which was flagged in part over views on gender and "anti-LGBTQI+" content. Those judgments did not stay academic; they fed advertiser boycotts and throttled revenue. Critics such as Elon Musk, Nate Silver, and Sridhar Vembu argued that the "misinformation" label was being used less as a narrow test of factual falsity than as a way to punish disfavored viewpoints, while defenders replied that the targets simply produced more harmful falsehoods.

The debate now turns on whether this pattern reflects partisan capture or an unpleasant but legitimate asymmetry in who spreads bad information. A substantial body of experts and critics now reject the old claim of political neutrality, pointing to ideological skew in media, academia, and the organizations that police speech, along with repeated cases where contested opinions were treated as settled falsehoods. Others still maintain that disinformation research is basically evidence-driven and that accusations of bias are often a way to discredit scrutiny. The original promise, that this would be an apolitical enterprise concerned only with lies, is increasingly recognized as at least doubtful.

Status: A significant portion of experts think this assumption was false
People Involved
  • Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and soon discovered internal documents showing government agencies and outside groups shaping content rules. He released the Twitter Files and publicly called for the Global Disinformation Index to be shut down after it rated his platform and outlets like UnHerd as high risk. Musk labeled the index a biased actor that punished conservative speech while claiming neutrality. His actions triggered congressional scrutiny, advertiser shifts, and lawsuits that forced funders to reconsider their support. The episode illustrated how one outsider with resources could expose what insiders had long denied. [2][3][5]
  • Nina Jankowicz was named executive director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board in 2022. She presented the board as a neutral coordinator that would protect free speech while countering foreign and domestic lies about elections and public health. Within weeks Fox News hosts called her a censor and the board a threat to the First Amendment. She received death threats while eight months pregnant, resigned after three weeks, and later sued the network for defamation. The board was quietly dissolved. [15][17]
  • Brandy Zadrozny worked as an NBC News reporter covering disinformation. She co-authored a chapter in the Verification Handbook that instructed journalists to use paid data brokers to unmask anonymous social media accounts spreading what she called harmful narratives. She celebrated on Twitter when Facebook removed QAnon groups she had targeted and doxed accounts like the Columbia Bugle after they were retweeted by Trump. Revolver News later profiled her sympathetic story about a pedophile and her history of focusing on Trump supporters. [9]
  • Katherine Maher became CEO of NPR in 2024 after leading the Wikimedia Foundation. She had a long record of tweets using phrases such as structural privilege and toxic masculinity. When senior editor Uri Berliner published an essay accusing NPR of ideological capture, Maher suspended him without pay for five days. Berliner resigned. The episode reinforced conservative arguments that public broadcasters enforced partisan standards under the banner of neutrality. [10]
▶ Supporting Quotes (52)
“Based on such findings, Elon Musk argued that the GDI should be shut down.”— Debunking Disinformation Myths, Part 2: The Politics of Big Disinfo
“Last year, Nate Silver tweeted: “What's revealing is that few in the Misinformation Industrial Complex call out obvious misinformation when it has a left-leaning valence. The term "misinformation" nearly always signifies conservative arguments (which may or may not be actual misinfo).””— Debunking Disinformation Myths, Part 2: The Politics of Big Disinfo
“Shayan Sardarizadeh, a journalist who works for BBC Verify (a post-2016 anti-disinformation initiative) responded: “Utter nonsense. Misinformation is not a right-left issue. It comes from all sides of the political spectrum, and there are plenty of non-partisan journalists and fact-checkers who document and call out misinformation regardless of where it comes from.””— Debunking Disinformation Myths, Part 2: The Politics of Big Disinfo
“Elon Musk has claimed that the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) “should be shut down” in response to an UnHerd investigation into the company.”— Elon Musk: Global Disinformation Index should be shut down
“Also criticising the GDI on X was Sridhar Vembu, an Indian billionaire and CEO of the Zoho corporation, who said that the index was a “global-left censor board” and that most of the international indexes which rank countries on a variety of criteria share this political agenda.”— Elon Musk: Global Disinformation Index should be shut down
“Kathleen Stock, an UnHerd columnist highly commended at last night’s Press Awards, was labelled a “prominent gender-critical feminist” by the GDI and used as an example of disinformation.”— Elon Musk: Global Disinformation Index should be shut down
“In a video outlining UnHerd’s investigation of GDI and its influence on advertisers, CEO and editor-in-chief Freddie Sayers explained how the problem surfaced... “You have a weird scenario,” he said, “where a self-appointed organisation is deciding that a explicitly legal and majority held view is enough to get an entire website blocked from international ad exchanges.””— Elon Musk Calls For Disinformation Non-Profit To Be ‘Shut Down’ After Editor Protests Site’s Blacklisting
“Subtweeting UnHerd’s investigation, Musk weighed in: Ironically, GDI pushes disinformation and should be shut down, with recriminations for the miscreants”— Elon Musk Calls For Disinformation Non-Profit To Be ‘Shut Down’ After Editor Protests Site’s Blacklisting
“in May, Hillary Clinton told the former Tory leader Lord Hague that “there must be a reckoning by the tech companies for the role that they play in undermining the information ecosystem that is absolutely essential for the functioning of any democracy.””— Bad News
“Only five years ago, Mark Zuckerberg said it was a “pretty crazy idea” that bad content on his website had persuaded enough voters to swing the 2016 election to Donald Trump. A year later, suddenly chastened, he apologized for being glib and pledged to do his part to thwart those who “spread misinformation.””— Bad News
“In March, the Aspen Institute announced that it would convene an exquisitely nonpartisan Commission on Information Disorder, co-chaired by Katie Couric”— Bad News
“The fifteen commissioners include Yasmin Green, the director of research and development for Jigsaw, a technology incubator within Google”— Bad News
“GDI was founded in 2018 by Clare Melford and Daniel Rogers. ... In December 2025, the US State Department imposed a visa sanction on Melford, as founder of GDI, for leading what US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called "organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose".”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“GDI was founded in 2018 by Clare Melford and Daniel Rogers.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“Alexandra Mousavizadeh is listed as a primary contact for the organization by RAND.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“In February 2023 the Washington Examiner, a U.S. conservative website, alleged bias from the GDI, releasing an investigative series that characterised GDI as "part of a stealth operation blacklisting and trying to defund conservative media, likely costing the news companies large sums in advertising dollars".”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“In April 2024, UnHerd CEO Freddie Sayers criticized GDI after it placed UnHerd on its "dynamic exclusion list", leading to a reduction in UnHerd's advertising revenue. Sayers argued that GDI's determination was based on ideological disagreements rather than factual inaccuracies.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“In response, Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, called for GDI to be shut down.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“PolitiFact founder Bill Adair, for example, notes that news judgment drives the decisions of the organization about which statements to check, and they aim to balance checks across political parties (26).”— Fact-checks focus on famous politicians, not partisans
“Zadrozny was a major contributor to the “Verification Handbook”, a book for online journalists. Specifically, Zadrozny wrote a guide on how to unethically dox anonymous people online.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“When Facebook responded accordingly, she went on Twitter to brag about silencing “my” groups.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“In a long article written shortly afterwards on a vigilante group that targeted sexual predators, Zadrozny complained at length about the suffering of pedophiles confronted by the POPSquad.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“Rather than address the substance of these criticisms—which will ring true to anyone who has listened to NPR over the past decade—Maher punished Berliner with a five-day unpaid suspension.”— Quotations from Chairman Maher
“Long-time NPR senior editor Uri Berliner published a scathing indictment of the self-professed “public” media service’s ideological capture.”— Quotations from Chairman Maher
“Zadrozny has a long history of targeting Trump supporters for doxing, censorship, and harassment. She poses as a neutral reporter, but like so many other “journalists” in 2020, she is simply an ideologically-motivated hitman.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“When Facebook responded accordingly, she went on Twitter to brag about silencing “my” groups.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
““We cannot tolerate anarchy on the internet,” Virani said at a press conference presenting the Online Harms Act. “The safety, the mental health, and even the lives of our kids and our most vulnerable are at stake.””— Major new Canadian legislation would penalize online hate at risk of censorship
“Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre said on Feb. 21 that he won’t accept “Justin Trudeau’s woke authoritarian agenda” and called the Online Harms Act an “attack on freedom of expression.””— Major new Canadian legislation would penalize online hate at risk of censorship
“Mike Benz, the executive director at the Foundation for Freedom Online, who offers a deep dive into what he terms the "censorship industrial complex"”— The Censorship Industrial Complex
“Elon Musk's exposure of Twitter's internal communications revealed the depth of collusion between tech companies and intelligence agencies.”— The Censorship Industrial Complex
“JD Vance appears ready to run for Senate, and it seems like opposing corporate power is going to be a major part of his political identity.”— Why is Everything Liberal?
““We are facing nothing less than a crisis in our democracy,” he says, “based on the systematic manipulation of data to support the relentless targeting of citizens, without their consent, by campaigns of disinformation and messages of hate.””— The Guardian view on the fight against fake news: neutrality is not an option | Editorial
“In his opening monologue on 28 April, Carlson called Jankowicz a “moron”, said that what she was doing amounted to a “full-scale attack on free speech” and dubbed the disinformation board “the new Soviet America”.”— Fox News’s ‘vitriolic lies’ threaten democracy, says disinformation expert suing channel
“Hannity went so far as to depict her as “one of the biggest perpetrators and purveyors of disinformation in the entire country”.”— Fox News’s ‘vitriolic lies’ threaten democracy, says disinformation expert suing channel
“Other Fox hosts, including Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity, followed suit, labelling her a “useful idiot”, “janko-half-witz” and “insane”.”— Fox News’s ‘vitriolic lies’ threaten democracy, says disinformation expert suing channel
“JD Vance appears ready to run for Senate, and it seems like opposing corporate power is going to be a major part of his political identity.”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“Josh Hawley regularly introduces bills to harm this or that industry, often based on some position it has taken that he doesn’t like.”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“Jankowicz has said the new DHS Board will “maintain the Dept’s committment [sic] to protecting free speech.””— Hawley Slams Biden Administration's 'Disinformation Governance Board,' Demands It Be Dissolved
“I write with deep concern about the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to create a new Disinformation Governance Board.”— Hawley Slams Biden Administration's 'Disinformation Governance Board,' Demands It Be Dissolved
““It can only be assumed that the sole purpose of this new Disinformation Governance Board will be to marshal the power of the federal government to censor conservative and dissenting speech. This is dangerous and un-American. The board should be immediately dissolved.””— Hawley Slams Biden Administration's 'Disinformation Governance Board,' Demands It Be Dissolved
“The organization, founded by former Labour Party operative Imran Ahmed in 2018”— EXCLUSIVE: George Soros Gave $250K to British Group Working To Censor Conservative News Sites and ‘Kill Musk’s Twitter’
“The left-wing philanthropy funded by George Soros, Open Society Foundations (OSF), bankrolls a British nonprofit”— EXCLUSIVE: George Soros Gave $250K to British Group Working To Censor Conservative News Sites and ‘Kill Musk’s Twitter’
“In 2023, Rep. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio) subpoenaed the CCDH for a list of its donors as part of an investigation of the firm’s alleged collusion to censor social media platforms.”— EXCLUSIVE: George Soros Gave $250K to British Group Working To Censor Conservative News Sites and ‘Kill Musk’s Twitter’
“whose founder is British political operative Morgan McSweeney, now advising the Kamala Harris campaign”— Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
“CCDH’s current CEO Imran Ahmed, another British political operative tied to McSweeney’s Labour Together”— Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
“strengthening ties with the Biden/Harris administration and Democrats like Senator Amy Klobuchar, who has introduced multiple bills to regulate online “misinformation.””— Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
“The group’s founder, Imran Ahmed, is a former advisor to Labour Members of Parliament Hilary Benn and Angela Eagle.”— Center for Countering Digital Hate - InfluenceWatch
“Board member Kristy McNeill is a former adviser to former Labour Party British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.”— Center for Countering Digital Hate - InfluenceWatch
“former board member Morgan McSweeney resigned from the board to become chief of staff to Labour Party leader Keir Starmer.”— Center for Countering Digital Hate - InfluenceWatch
“The instigator of this campaign, philosopher Mark Alfano, told Cofnas, “You’re about to learn why people generally avoid fucking with me.” (He thus earned himself the nickname “Mafia Mark”.)”— Remind me not to vacation in Belgium
“The authors offered the conclusion that, “Results converge on genetics as a potential partial explanation for group mean differences in intelligence.” Use of NIH data for studies of racial differences in this way is both a violation of the data use agreement and unethical.”— How to Lose Tenure with One Sentence
““After I founded PolitiFact in 2007, I often said that our goal wasn’t to change people’s minds or get politicians to stop lying — it was simply to inform democracy. In the last few years, I’ve changed my mind. “Informing democracy” is not enough in an age of rampant lies about elections and public health and climate. Fact-checkers need to be more assertive in getting truthful information to the audience that needs it.””— Why Would I Possibly Trust Bill Adair Or PolitiFact To Determine Which ‘Misinformation’ Should Be ‘Suppressed’?
Organizations Involved

The Global Disinformation Index was founded in 2018 and received grants from the US State Department, the UK Foreign Office, the European Union, and the Knight Foundation. It created a ratings system that assigned risk scores to websites based on factors including anti-LGBTQI+ narratives and gender-critical content. UnHerd received a low brand-safety rating and was placed on ad-tech exclusion lists, causing advertisers to pull campaigns. The organization described its work as independent and transparent. After investigative reporting and congressional pressure, several funders withdrew support by 2023. [1][2][3][5]

The Center for Countering Digital Hate was established by former Labour Party operatives and received funding from George Soros’s Open Society Foundations. It published reports labeling conservative sites such as The Federalist and Zero Hedge as sources of hate speech and urged advertisers and platforms to demonetize them. The group met with more than sixty congressional offices to advocate for a new US digital regulator modeled on European laws. Leaked documents revealed internal plans titled Kill Musk’s Twitter. Elon Musk sued the organization in 2023 alleging falsified data. [19][20][21]

The Department of Homeland Security created the Disinformation Governance Board in 2022 to coordinate efforts against misinformation on topics including immigration and elections. Officials described the board as fully consistent with constitutional protections. Senator Josh Hawley demanded its dissolution on the day it was announced. Fox News coverage amplified criticism and the board was shut down within months. The episode became a case study in how quickly federal initiatives could collapse under partisan fire. [17][15]

▶ Supporting Quotes (37)
“One of several similar organisations that emerged post-2016, the GDI has received funding from the UK government, European Union, German Foreign Office, and US State Department. Its modus operandi is to classify websites according to their risk of spreading disinformation and then use such classifications to persuade advertisers to boycott high-risk outlets. One of the outlets it places in this high-risk category—its “dynamic exclusion list”—is the British media outlet Unherd. Its justification? “Our team re-reviewed the domain, the rating will not change as it continues to have anti-LGBTQI+ narratives… The site authors have been called out for being anti-trans. Kathleen Stock is acknowledged as a ‘prominent gender-critical’ feminist.””— Debunking Disinformation Myths, Part 2: The Politics of Big Disinfo
“As SARS-CoV-2 spread across the globe, the World Health Organisation announced that the world was in the grip of an equally dangerous “infodemic.””— Debunking Disinformation Myths, Part 2: The Politics of Big Disinfo
“In 2018, the European Union put together an Action Plan Against Disinformation amidst the emergence of many other anti-disinformation projects and initiatives worldwide.”— Debunking Disinformation Myths, Part 2: The Politics of Big Disinfo
“The GDI is based in London and was originally founded in 2018 to help combat disinformation, receiving funding from various sources including the US State Department.”— Elon Musk: Global Disinformation Index should be shut down
“UnHerd was slapped with a boycott by numerous online advertisers after UK-based non-profit GDI labelled some of its articles as “anti-trans narratives” and gave it a low “brand-safety” rating. GDI’s objective is to guide advertisers away from what it deems “harmful content.””— Elon Musk Calls For Disinformation Non-Profit To Be ‘Shut Down’ After Editor Protests Site’s Blacklisting
“the Aspen Institute announced that it would convene an exquisitely nonpartisan Commission on Information Disorder, co-chaired by Katie Couric, which would “deliver recommendations for how the country can respond to this modern-day crisis of faith in key institutions.””— Bad News
“Facebook’s basic business pitch made denial impossible. Zuckerberg’s company profits by convincing advertisers that it can standardize its audience for commercial persuasion.”— Bad News
“The group utilises a system of ratings of news sources and websites to determine risk of disinformation. ... It has received funding through a combination of charitable trusts, governmental organizations, and tech licensees of its dynamic exclusion list.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“Kaminsky said that GDI received $100,000 from the U.S. Department of State. However, the State Department has denied that the grant was used to "blacklist" any companies in the U.S.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), ... In response to Badenoch's concerns, Foreign Secretary David Cameron stated that FCDO had ceased funding GDI in 2023 and did not plan to resume funding.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“Contributors include the Knight Foundation.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“We first collect data on how often every US member of Congress from 2018 to 2021 was fact-checked by PolitiFact, the largest fact-checking organization. Only 20% of members account for 90% of the total fact-checks”— Fact-checks focus on famous politicians, not partisans
“Why did NBC News hire an obviously partisan hack to do the dirty work of George Soros-funded Media Matters?”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“Facebook told NBC News that it is aware of these groups and does not ban them outright, although much of what they do appears to violate Facebook’s rules against shaming or cyberbullying. [NBC News]”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“Maher punished Berliner with a five-day unpaid suspension. (Berliner announced his resignation from NPR earlier today.)”— Quotations from Chairman Maher
“In a speech to the Atlantic Council, an organization with extensive ties to U.S. intelligence services, she explained that she “took a very active approach to disinformation,” coordinated censorship “through conversations with government,” and suppressed dissenting opinions related to the pandemic and the 2020 election.”— Quotations from Chairman Maher
“Zadrozny is part of a press corps deployed to cover “misinformation, disinformation, and extremism” after the Internet fueled President Donald Trump’s win in 2016.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“The Liberal Party promised to introduce the measure retaining control in 2021, but have taken longer to act than some have wanted.”— Major new Canadian legislation would penalize online hate at risk of censorship
““We support the federal government’s goal of helping young people have safe, positive experiences online and have spent more than a decade developing industry-leading tools and policies to protect them,” Facebook parent company Meta said in a press statement.”— Major new Canadian legislation would penalize online hate at risk of censorship
“Google's beginnings as a DARPA-funded project.”— The Censorship Industrial Complex
“significant influence from federal agencies like the State Department, the Defense Department, and intelligence services.”— The Censorship Industrial Complex
“NGOs as government cutouts, executing the will of intelligence agencies and shaping information ecosystems worldwide.”— The Censorship Industrial Complex
“the NFL moved the Super Bowl from Arizona over MLK day... the scope of the issues on which corporations feel the need to weigh in is certainly expanding, now including LGBT issues, abortion laws, voting rights, kneeling during the national anthem, and gun control.”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“The weekend report by the Commons digital, culture, media and sport committee on disinformation and “fake news” is one of these exceptions.”— The Guardian view on the fight against fake news: neutrality is not an option | Editorial
“The woman suing Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News for defamation... has accused the media giant of waging a campaign of “vitriolic lies” against her.”— Fox News’s ‘vitriolic lies’ threaten democracy, says disinformation expert suing channel
“the scope of the issues on which corporations feel the need to weigh in is certainly expanding, now including LGBT issues, abortion laws, voting rights, kneeling during the national anthem, and gun control.”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“the Department of Homeland Security’s decision to create a new Disinformation Governance Board.”— Hawley Slams Biden Administration's 'Disinformation Governance Board,' Demands It Be Dissolved
“The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) produced this graphic to highlight tactics used by disinformation campaigns that seek to disrupt critical infrastructure in the United States.”— disinformation stops with you infographic set 508
“OSF gave $250,000 last year to the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) for "general support," according to the Soros charity’s grant database.”— EXCLUSIVE: George Soros Gave $250K to British Group Working To Censor Conservative News Sites and ‘Kill Musk’s Twitter’
“The CCDH, under the guise of stopping "the spread of online hate and disinformation," has pressured social media companies’ investors and advertisers to censor supposed "disinformation" or other content it deems to be offensive.”— EXCLUSIVE: George Soros Gave $250K to British Group Working To Censor Conservative News Sites and ‘Kill Musk’s Twitter’
“internal documents from the Center for Countering Digital Hate...show the group plans in writing to “kill Musk’s Twitter””— Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
“McSweeney’s Labour Together has been operating in the U.S. for several years through CCDH.”— Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
““Question on lobbying — if it is anything that Congress could have a vote on, it counts as lobbying,””— Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
“The Center for Countering Digital Hate is a London-based advocacy group that targets accused “hate groups” and individuals for de-platforming campaigns to remove them from major social media outlets.”— Center for Countering Digital Hate - InfluenceWatch
“The first, signed by 45 philosophers from the very department in which Cofnas was appointed, claims that his views “are morally beneath contempt” (not merely worthy of contempt but beneath it).”— Remind me not to vacation in Belgium
“The second, signed by several hundred academics from both Ghent University and elsewhere, expresses “indignation” about Cofnas’s appointment and purports to show that his views “violate our university’s ethical code”.”— Remind me not to vacation in Belgium
“PolitiFact was one of the partners in question. ... Meta, that it will be ending its American fact-checking partnerships on Facebook in favor of a new, crowdsourced “Community Notes”-style feature.”— Why Would I Possibly Trust Bill Adair Or PolitiFact To Determine Which ‘Misinformation’ Should Be ‘Suppressed’?
The Foundation

Experts and officials insisted that anti-disinformation work was a neutral, evidence-based enterprise. They pointed to Soviet-era dezinformatsiya as a real technique that had been updated for the digital age. Surveys such as one from Pew showed that half of Americans considered made-up news a major problem comparable to violent crime. The harm model borrowed from public health, treating false information like a toxin that altered beliefs and behavior in measurable ways. Funding from governments and foundations lent the enterprise an aura of official expertise. [1][4]

Early claims rested on the idea that definitions of misinformation as false or misleading content and disinformation as intentionally deceptive material could be applied objectively. The Global Disinformation Index presented its methodology as independent and data-driven, citing intelligence and think-tank backgrounds among its staff. Its 2022 analysis of US media found that the ten riskiest sites were all right-leaning while the safest were mostly left-leaning. Proponents argued this reflected genuine differences in factual reliability rather than political preference. [2][5]

Fact-checking organizations like PolitiFact maintained that selections followed news judgment and prominence rather than partisanship. A study of their output showed that checks concentrated on a small number of high-profile politicians who generated most media coverage. Bill Adair, the founder, stated that the goal was balance across parties and that earlier bias accusations had relied on unrepresentative samples. Subsequent research that controlled for prominence, media attention, and social media activity found no clear partisan skew in who was fact-checked. [6][31]

Yet mounting evidence challenges the claim of neutrality. The same ratings systems repeatedly classified mainstream conservative arguments on gender as disinformation. Fact-checkers sometimes rated statements based on contested political narratives, as when PolitiFact labeled a Trump comment about the Kenosha events false despite video evidence supporting his description. Critics argue that institutional left lean in academia and journalism shaped which topics and voices were scrutinized. Significant questions surround whether the enterprise can escape the political incentives that govern funding, hiring, and promotion. [5][31][24]

▶ Supporting Quotes (31)
“The term “disinformation” derives from “dezinformatsiya”, a word introduced and defined in the Soviet Union’s 1952 Great Soviet Encyclopedia as follows: “Dissemination (in the press, on the radio, etc.) of false reports intended to mislead public opinion. The capitalist press and radio make wide use of dezinformatsiya.””— Debunking Disinformation Myths, Part 2: The Politics of Big Disinfo
“Although there is significant inconsistency and confusion in how these buzzwords get defined and applied, most researchers treat the former as a generic term for bad information—typically defined as “false or misleading information”—and treat “disinformation” as the name for intentional misinformation.”— Debunking Disinformation Myths, Part 2: The Politics of Big Disinfo
“It claims to provide “independent, neutral and transparent data and intelligence” for government bodies seeking to challenge “disinformation”.”— Elon Musk: Global Disinformation Index should be shut down
“The publication had been given a low score by GDI for articles challenging transgender self-identification and sex-change surgeries... In his investigation, Sayers looked at GDI’s history and founder, who openly tout backgrounds in the U.S. intelligence community, machine learning development and European think-tanks”— Elon Musk Calls For Disinformation Non-Profit To Be ‘Shut Down’ After Editor Protests Site’s Blacklisting
“According to a 2019 Pew survey, half of Americans think that “made-up news/info” is “a very big problem in the country today,” about on par with the “U.S. political system,” the “gap between rich and poor,” and “violent crime.””— Bad News
“As an environmental cleanup project, it presumes a harm model of content consumption. Just as, say, smoking causes cancer, consuming bad information must cause changes in belief or behavior that are bad, by some standard.”— Bad News
“The group utilises a system of ratings of news sources and websites to determine risk of disinformation. ... all 10 outlets that GDI in a report identified as the "riskiest" and "worst" all leaned to the political right while all but one of the 10 ranked "least risky" leaned to the political left.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“previous work studying potential bias has relied on small or unrepresentative samples of fact-checks (38–41). Many of the past claims about biases are supported by evaluating the fact-checks of a few prominent political officials such as Presidents Trump, Biden, or Obama (18, 19, 22, 29).”— Fact-checks focus on famous politicians, not partisans
“the “gatekeeping” literature has consistently found that political leaders receive more attention than nonleaders (43–45, 47). Coverage in news media is also likely to influence the rate of fact-checking.”— Fact-checks focus on famous politicians, not partisans
“Political leaders have also been found to receive increased scrutiny (4, 8, 29, 38, 39, 46). media coverage of statements can make fact-checking more likely both by adding statements to the public record and by increasing their coverage”— Fact-checks focus on famous politicians, not partisans
“Zadrozny appears to use paid, dark-data search engines to dox the personal information of anonymous Trump supporters online — obtaining property records, phone information, and even their Amazon wish lists.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“My favorite kind of stories are those that reveal the real people behind influential, anonymous social media accounts.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“Long-time NPR senior editor Uri Berliner published a scathing indictment of the self-professed “public” media service’s ideological capture.”— Quotations from Chairman Maher
“Zadrozny was a major contributor to the “Verification Handbook”, a book for online journalists. Specifically, Zadrozny wrote a guide on how to unethically dox anonymous people online. Zadrozny appears to use paid, dark-data search engines to dox the personal information of anonymous Trump supporters online — obtaining property records, phone information, and even their Amazon wish lists.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“My favorite kind of stories are those that reveal the real people behind influential, anonymous social media accounts. These secret accounts are less reliant on the algorithm, and more carefully crafted to be an escape from public life.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“The legislation defines hate speech as “content of a communication that expresses detestation or vilification of an individual or group of individuals based on prohibited grounds of discrimination.””— Major new Canadian legislation would penalize online hate at risk of censorship
“social media censorship has evolved into an industry post-2016, with significant influence from federal agencies”— The Censorship Industrial Complex
“The post-2016 election period marked a critical tipping point... to maintain the status quo”— The Censorship Industrial Complex
“While all votes count equally on Election Day... Through the lens of ordinal utility, in which people simply rank what they want to happen, we are about equal... But when we think in terms of cardinal utility – in layman’s terms, how bad people want something to happen – it’s no contest.”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“I think one reason Woke Capital is getting so much attention is because we expect business to be more right-leaning, and corporations throwing in with the party of more taxes and regulation strikes us as odd.”— Why is Everything Liberal?
““What became clear,” the report says, “is that, without the knowledge of most politicians and election regulators across the world, not to mention the wider public, a small group of individuals and businesses had been influencing elections across different jurisdictions in recent years.””— The Guardian view on the fight against fake news: neutrality is not an option | Editorial
“In the lawsuit, Jankowicz’s lawyers allege that the attacks skyrocketed the following day, after Fox News hosts began fuelling the hatred with unfounded claims about her desire to censor rightwing voices.”— Fox News’s ‘vitriolic lies’ threaten democracy, says disinformation expert suing channel
“The lawsuit also points to Fox hosts saying she was fired from the board when she in fact resigned.”— Fox News’s ‘vitriolic lies’ threaten democracy, says disinformation expert suing channel
“In a democracy, every vote is supposed to be equal. If about half the country supports one side and half the country supports another, you may expect major institutions to either be equally divided, or to try to stay politically neutral.”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“The apparent broad mandate of this new government entity to “coordinate countering misinformation” in America undermines the argument that it can even exist consistent with the Constitution.”— Hawley Slams Biden Administration's 'Disinformation Governance Board,' Demands It Be Dissolved
“Bad actors spread disinformation to undermine democratic institutions and the power of facts. [...] Bad actors use online disinformation to affect our real-world behavior, like trying to influence how we vote, inciting physical confrontations, and disrupting healthy democratic discussions and participation.”— disinformation stops with you infographic set 508
“The CCDH does not voluntarily disclose its donors.”— EXCLUSIVE: George Soros Gave $250K to British Group Working To Censor Conservative News Sites and ‘Kill Musk’s Twitter’
“CCDH’s hyperfocus on Musk — “Kill Musk’s Twitter” is the first item in the template of its monthly agenda notes”— Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
“Google made the decision after receiving a report from the Center which claimed that comment sections on Zero Hedge articles regarding Black Lives Matter contained racist content.”— Center for Countering Digital Hate - InfluenceWatch
“There is evidence that direct biases in classroom instruction, grading, and graduate-level admissions are either unobserved or at most small effects; however, mechanisms by which ideology might influence research have recently been demonstrated in controlled experiments.”— The ideological orientation of academic social science research 1960–2024
“Claim: A video shows Rittenhouse “was trying to get away from them . . . fell, and then they violently attacked him.” Our ruling: False. ... “Trump’s comments completely overlook the fact that people started following him after he allegedly shot and killed someone.” Yes, but 1) that doesn’t make Trump’s claim false, and 2) ... the first person Rittenhouse shot had chased him.”— Why Would I Possibly Trust Bill Adair Or PolitiFact To Determine Which ‘Misinformation’ Should Be ‘Suppressed’?
How It Spread

After the 2016 Brexit vote and Trump election, media and academic discourse filled with terms such as post-truth era and misinformation age. Oxford Dictionaries named post-truth its word of the year in 2016 and Collins chose fake news in 2017. The World Economic Forum listed misinformation as the top global risk ahead of nuclear war. These narratives created a climate in which skepticism of official fact-checking was itself treated as suspect. [1][4]

The Global Disinformation Index spread its ratings through government contracts and ad-tech partners such as Oracle and Microsoft Xandr. Dynamic exclusion lists automatically steered advertisers away from flagged sites. UnHerd’s revenue declined after it was labeled for gender-critical content. The organization’s advisory panel included prominent journalists until several requested removal in 2023 amid bias allegations. [3][5]

Elite institutions rewarded alignment with prevailing narratives. Katherine Maher’s public statements and tweet history showed activist language that advanced within organizations like Wikimedia and NPR. Brandy Zadrozny’s Twitter posts celebrated successful deplatformings and doxing of accounts she described as spreading disinformation. These examples reinforced the impression that careers advanced by framing conservative speech as a public-health threat. [10][9]

Conservative outlets and independent journalists pushed back through investigative series and leaked documents. The Twitter Files revealed coordination between federal agencies and platforms. Gabe Kaminsky’s reporting in the Washington Examiner documented patterns in Global Disinformation Index scores. Such work gradually shifted the burden of proof onto the organizations claiming neutrality. [12][5]

▶ Supporting Quotes (35)
““Post-truth” was Oxford Dictionary’s term of the year in 2016. “Fake news” was Collins Dictionary’s term of the year in 2017, the same year Time Magazine ran a cover story asking “Is Truth Dead?”.”— Debunking Disinformation Myths, Part 2: The Politics of Big Disinfo
“The World Economic Forum surveyed 1500 experts this January for a “global risk report.” What did it list as the top global threat over the next two years, ahead of nuclear war, military conflict, and economic catastrophe? Misinformation and disinformation.”— Debunking Disinformation Myths, Part 2: The Politics of Big Disinfo
“receiving funding from various sources including the US State Department. It claims to provide “independent, neutral and transparent data and intelligence” for government bodies seeking to challenge “disinformation”.”— Elon Musk: Global Disinformation Index should be shut down
“The final agency then discovered that the site had been flagged as disinformation by Oracle, a product strategy software firm, on the basis of data from GDI.”— Elon Musk Calls For Disinformation Non-Profit To Be ‘Shut Down’ After Editor Protests Site’s Blacklisting
“Big Disinfo has found energetic support from the highest echelons of the American political center, which has been warning of an existential content crisis more or less constantly since the 2016 election.”— Bad News
“The so-called techlash, a season of belatedly brutal media coverage and political pressure in the aftermath of Brexit and Trump’s win, made it difficult.”— Bad News
“tech licensees of its dynamic exclusion list. ... After the series of stories, Microsoft's Xandr cut ties with GDI and exited the political advertising space.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“Until March 2023, GDI publicly disclosed members of its "Advisory Panel". Amongst others, these have included Anne Applebaum. Reason reported in February 2023 that Applebaum had asked for her name to removed from the GDI website as she had not been in contact with GDI since 2019.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“Media reports alleging bias in fact-checking often implicitly assume that elected officials differ on only a single salient dimension: party identification.”— Fact-checks focus on famous politicians, not partisans
“this work often selects on the dependent variable, by only evaluating officials that have received fact-checks (20, 21, 38, 41).”— Fact-checks focus on famous politicians, not partisans
“Brandy, via Twitter Not only does Zadrozny brag about doxing Trump supporters, she actually wrote the book on it.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“Zadrozny is part of a press corps deployed to cover “misinformation, disinformation, and extremism” after the Internet fueled President Donald Trump’s win in 2016.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“Maher understands the game: America’s elite institutions reward loyalty to the narrative. Those who repeat the words move up; those who don’t move out.”— Quotations from Chairman Maher
“What you notice first about Maher’s public speech are the buzzwords and phrases: “structural privilege,” “epistemic emergency,” “transit justice,” “non-binary people,” “late-stage capitalism,” “cis white mobility privilege,” “the politics of representation,” “folx.””— Quotations from Chairman Maher
“Zadrozny’s biggest target in 2020 is Qanon. Instead of simply covering the online movement like an objective and ethical journalist would, Zadrozny has an ideological commitment to suppressing it.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“The bill’s goals echo, to some extent, the United Kingdom’s Online Safety Bill and the United States’s Kids Online Safety Act.”— Major new Canadian legislation would penalize online hate at risk of censorship
“NGOs as government proxies: Non-governmental organizations, often funded by the government, play a pivotal role in shaping and enforcing censorship policies domestically and internationally.”— The Censorship Industrial Complex
“Corporations are woke... because institutions are woke... business is just being assimilated into a larger trend.”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“liberals are in their personal lives more intolerant of conservatives than vice versa across numerous dimensions... People who engage in protesting care more about politics than people who donate money, and people who donate money care more than people who simply vote.”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“The result is a report that deserves to be described as essential reading because it deals with issues demanding essential action.”— The Guardian view on the fight against fake news: neutrality is not an option | Editorial
“Whenever Fox hosts attacked her on air, a swarm of online hate would be directed at her culminating in multiple death threats.”— Fox News’s ‘vitriolic lies’ threaten democracy, says disinformation expert suing channel
“Asking why corporations are woke is like asking why Hispanics tend to have two arms... Corporations are woke, meaning left wing on social issues relative to the general population, because institutions are woke.”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“the media and academia. Generally, these are professions that have absolutely terrible career prospects... individuals get to have an influence in society that is disproportionate”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“Why did DHS time its announcement of this governance board directly after Mr. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter?”— Hawley Slams Biden Administration's 'Disinformation Governance Board,' Demands It Be Dissolved
“Do your part to stop the spread of disinformation by practicing and sharing these tips. [...] Learn more at www.cisa.gov/mdm-resource-library”— disinformation stops with you infographic set 508
“The CCDH... met with 16 congressional offices to discuss Musk’s lawsuit against the organization, and held "policy engagement" meetings with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.). The nonprofit also lobbied American policymakers toward the creation of an "independent digital regulator"”— EXCLUSIVE: George Soros Gave $250K to British Group Working To Censor Conservative News Sites and ‘Kill Musk’s Twitter’
“Politico to call Labour and the Democrats “sister parties.””— Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
“CCDH went directly after us and he worked with Google when they briefly suspended all advertising on Zero Hedge... Similar tactics led to demonetization of The Federalist”— Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
“In June 2020, the group launched a campaign that was promoted by NBC’s News Verification Unit against American conservative commentary website The Federalist, seeking to have Google ban the site from its advertising platform.”— Center for Countering Digital Hate - InfluenceWatch
“characterizing the political content of hundreds of thousands of academic texts, especially in a consistent and fine-grained way, has historically been prohibitively expensive and time-intensive when relying on human coders.”— The ideological orientation of academic social science research 1960–2024
“More than 100 academics signed a petition calling for an apology, a retraction and even the resignation of the journal’s editors... This almost immediately sparked another, student-led petition... yet another petition, which amassed more than 1,200 signatures... no less than two further petitions against him (bringing the total to five).”— Remind me not to vacation in Belgium
“Critics have repeatedly accused fact-checkers of harboring editorial biases against conservatives or liberals”— Questioning Fact-Checking in the Fight Against Disinformation
“Fact-checked false statements are more likely to mention Democrats compared to fact-checked true statements”— Is Fact-Checking Politically Neutral?
“Soon after publication, a complaint was sent to university officials alleging improper use of the NIH data.”— How to Lose Tenure with One Sentence
“They’ll get tech companies and social media platforms to expand the use of fact-checking data to suppress misinformation. My Duke team helped develop ClaimReview, a tagging system used by most of the world’s fact-checkers. Tech companies such as Google use it to identify fact-checks and highlight them in search results and news summaries.”— Why Would I Possibly Trust Bill Adair Or PolitiFact To Determine Which ‘Misinformation’ Should Be ‘Suppressed’?
Resulting Policies

Governments and technology companies adopted Big Disinfo classifications to flag and sometimes remove content. The European Union issued its Action Plan Against Disinformation in 2018. The World Health Organization declared an infodemic during the COVID-19 pandemic and supported related initiatives. Platforms including Facebook revised moderation policies and partnered with fact-checkers such as PolitiFact to label and demote material. [1][4]

Canada’s Liberal government introduced Bill C-63, the Online Harms Act, which would amend the Criminal Code, create new regulatory bodies, and expand the Canadian Human Rights Act to cover online complaints. Justice Minister Arif Virani described the legislation as necessary to protect children and combat hate. Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre called it an attack on free expression. The bill remains contentious. [11]

The Department of Homeland Security established the Disinformation Governance Board to coordinate across agencies on issues including election integrity and public health. Officials insisted it had no enforcement power. Senator Josh Hawley and Fox News hosts portrayed it as the start of domestic censorship. The board was dissolved after intense backlash. [17][15]

The Center for Countering Digital Hate lobbied Congress for a new US digital regulator and pushed platforms to adopt its STAR framework. It influenced advertiser decisions that demonetized conservative sites including The Federalist. Google removed ads from several outlets after the group’s reports. These actions demonstrated how private organizations could shape public policy while claiming independence. [20][21]

▶ Supporting Quotes (23)
“Disinformation experts advise governments, companies, and international organisations like the European Union and World Health Organization on interventions and policies, including decisions about which online content to flag and censor.”— Debunking Disinformation Myths, Part 2: The Politics of Big Disinfo
“UnHerd was targeted by the GDI, which said that a place on its “dynamic exclusion list” of publications was merited”— Elon Musk: Global Disinformation Index should be shut down
“Pointing to the organisation’s funding, which is partly sourced from the UK government, Sayers said that this association poses a serious threat to free speech and free debate”— Elon Musk Calls For Disinformation Non-Profit To Be ‘Shut Down’ After Editor Protests Site’s Blacklisting
“he apologized for being glib and pledged to do his part to thwart those who “spread misinformation.””— Bad News
“Congress passed a law in 2023 that banned the Pentagon from funding GDI in the future for military recruitment advertising.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“Foreign Secretary David Cameron stated that FCDO had ceased funding GDI in 2023 and did not plan to resume funding.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“Maher punished Berliner with a five-day unpaid suspension.”— Quotations from Chairman Maher
“As CEO of the Wikimedia Foundation, Maher made censorship a critical part of her policy, under the guise of fighting “disinformation.””— Quotations from Chairman Maher
“When Facebook responded accordingly, she went on Twitter to brag about silencing “my” groups.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“The Online Harms Act would amend the country’s Criminal Code to increase sentences for spreading hate online and would modify the law to establish a separate offense for crimes motivated by hate. The Canadian Human Rights Act would be amended to allow complaints about online hate to be filed with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.”— Major new Canadian legislation would penalize online hate at risk of censorship
“the State Department and intelligence agencies doubling down on controlling online narratives... as seen in the Philippines, Brexit, and the US presidential election.”— The Censorship Industrial Complex
“Josh Hawley regularly introduces bills to harm this or that industry, often based on some position it has taken that he doesn’t like.”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“education – which the committee boldly says should be funded by a levy on the social media companies – about digitally literacy and truthfulness.”— The Guardian view on the fight against fake news: neutrality is not an option | Editorial
“The Disinformation Governance Board was abruptly shut down in the wake of a storm of virulent rightwing criticism, allegedly fueled by Fox News.”— Fox News’s ‘vitriolic lies’ threaten democracy, says disinformation expert suing channel
“last time Republicans had control of government, their major legislative achievement was a corporate tax cut. Nonetheless... politicians are serious about doing something about Woke Capital”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“your Department has consistently treated competing policy views as disinformation to be monitored or investigated. However, political debates on issues such as immigration, pandemic lockdowns, and foreign policy clearly constitute “core political speech””— Hawley Slams Biden Administration's 'Disinformation Governance Board,' Demands It Be Dissolved
“Rely on official websites and verified social media for authoritative information. [...] CISA’s publication of information materials about this issue are intended for public awareness”— disinformation stops with you infographic set 508
“In 2020, the CCDH petitioned Google to ban ads from the Federalist and Zero Hedge because of comments on articles related to the George Floyd protests the CCDH deemed to be racist.”— EXCLUSIVE: George Soros Gave $250K to British Group Working To Censor Conservative News Sites and ‘Kill Musk’s Twitter’
“pushing for “change in USA” toward a censorious proposal it calls the “STAR framework,” which would create an “independent digital regulator””— Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
“Meeting with {Senator Amy] Klobuchar’s team.””— Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
“On January 30, Hopkins’s Twitter account was suspended for a week... On June 19, Hopkins’s account was permanently suspended.”— Center for Countering Digital Hate - InfluenceWatch
“The complaint did not address the study’s design, methodology or statistical analyses. Instead, it questioned whether the data could be used for this type of research at all.”— How to Lose Tenure with One Sentence
“I’m unlocking this article on 1/7/2025, in light of this announcement from Facebook’s parent company, Meta, that it will be ending its American fact-checking partnerships on Facebook in favor of a new, crowdsourced “Community Notes”-style feature. PolitiFact was one of the partners in question.”— Why Would I Possibly Trust Bill Adair Or PolitiFact To Determine Which ‘Misinformation’ Should Be ‘Suppressed’?
Harm Caused

The Global Disinformation Index’s ratings led advertisers to boycott or reduce spending with sites such as UnHerd. The outlet’s revenue declined after it was flagged for gender-critical content that the index labeled anti-LGBTQI+ disinformation. Conservative media organizations reported significant lost advertising dollars. The Daily Wire and The Federalist sued over alleged censorship through the ratings system. [1][3][5]

Doxing of anonymous accounts by journalists like Brandy Zadrozny resulted in harassment and threats against Trump supporters. Accounts such as the Columbia Bugle faced doxxing after prominent retweets. Some individuals reported life-threatening targeting. These tactics contributed to a climate of intimidation during the 2020 election cycle. [9]

NPR suspended senior editor Uri Berliner without pay after he criticized the organization’s ideological tilt. He resigned shortly afterward. The episode chilled internal dissent at a publicly funded broadcaster. Katherine Maher’s leadership at Wikimedia also involved suppression of dissenting views on COVID-19 and the 2020 election. [10]

Researchers who studied disinformation or controversial topics faced professional repercussions. Bryan Pesta lost tenure at Cleveland State University after a complaint about his peer-reviewed paper on racial differences. Nicholas Cofnas endured multiple petition campaigns and protests at the University of Ghent that threatened his academic appointment. Such cases illustrated the personal costs of challenging prevailing assumptions. [30][25]

▶ Supporting Quotes (31)
“Its modus operandi is to classify websites according to their risk of spreading disinformation and then use such classifications to persuade advertisers to boycott high-risk outlets.”— Debunking Disinformation Myths, Part 2: The Politics of Big Disinfo
“due to the site having “anti-LGBTQI+ narratives” and being “anti-trans”, equating widely-held views on gender to disinformation.”— Elon Musk: Global Disinformation Index should be shut down
“without interference Unherd’s advertising revenue income would jump significantly but is being stifled by GDI’s algorithm-assisted rating system.”— Elon Musk Calls For Disinformation Non-Profit To Be ‘Shut Down’ After Editor Protests Site’s Blacklisting
“the platforms’ clumsy, dishonest, and half-hearted attempts to halt it.”— Bad News
“characterised GDI as "part of a stealth operation blacklisting and trying to defund conservative media, likely costing the news companies large sums in advertising dollars". ... leading to a reduction in UnHerd's advertising revenue.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“The series in the Washington Examiner sparked outcry among conservatives, and prompted a lawsuit by The Daily Wire and The Federalist, two U.S. right-wing websites, against the State Department.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“conservatives are the least trusting of fact-checking (5, 30, 34), yet these individuals consume and share most of the unreliable news sites (35–37). biases may undermine the effectiveness of fact-checking groups. Finally, biases that draw attention to particular officials necessarily mean that others will be checked at a lower rate. This creates inequality in the information available for the electorate to hold representatives accountable.”— Fact-checks focus on famous politicians, not partisans
“fact-checking of members of Congress is highly unequal. Most representatives in our study received zero fact-checks, and 20% of representatives received fully 90% of total fact-checks. Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders received more fact-checks than the combined members of Congress from 22 states. Politicians representing most of the United States (particularly the geographic middle of the country) received few fact-checks.”— Fact-checks focus on famous politicians, not partisans
“Let’s say you’re a patriotic anonymous Twitter user. One day, POTUS retweets you. Wow, cool! But then Comrade Zadrozny from NBC says your account amplifies harmful narratives, so she sets out to dox you. This could happen to anyone. But in this case, it happened to the great Columbia Bugle account.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“Harassment, censorship, and intimidation of Trump supporters by any means necessary is a key element of the “color revolution” strategy.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“(Berliner announced his resignation from NPR earlier today.)”— Quotations from Chairman Maher
“suppressed dissenting opinions related to the pandemic and the 2020 election.”— Quotations from Chairman Maher
“Harassment, censorship, and intimidation of Trump supporters by any means necessary is a key element of the “color revolution” strategy.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“Major new Canadian legislation would penalize online hate at risk of censorship”— Major new Canadian legislation would penalize online hate at risk of censorship
“The Justice Department's Role: The politicization of the Justice Department poses a significant threat to democracy”— The Censorship Industrial Complex
“last time Republicans had control of government, their major legislative achievement was a corporate tax cut. Nonetheless... the phenomenon is interesting... for what it tells us about... where our culture and politics are going.”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“The issues raised in the report are existential for parliamentary democracy and for rational public policy-making.”— The Guardian view on the fight against fake news: neutrality is not an option | Editorial
““Every time they talked about me on Fox, a new wave of harassment would start. I would get a spike especially when Carlson and Hannity mentioned me.””— Fox News’s ‘vitriolic lies’ threaten democracy, says disinformation expert suing channel
““They were focused on belittling me, cutting me down to size – disregarding my serious work and the fact that I had been called as a Republican witness in Senate hearings – just to make me look like a silly little girl.””— Fox News’s ‘vitriolic lies’ threaten democracy, says disinformation expert suing channel
“Woke Capital, one of the most important developments in the last decade or so of American politics.”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“Rather than protecting our border or the American homeland, you have chosen to make policing Americans’ speech your priority.”— Hawley Slams Biden Administration's 'Disinformation Governance Board,' Demands It Be Dissolved
“CISA’s publication of information materials about this issue are intended for public awareness, and are not intended to restrict, diminish, or demean any person’s right to hold, express, or publish any opinion or belief, including opinions or beliefs that align with those of a foreign government, are expressed by a foreign government-backed campaign, or dissent from the majority.”— disinformation stops with you infographic set 508
“Last year, the CCDH quietly organized a campaign to "kill Musk’s Twitter" by pressuring advertisers to cut ties with the company”— EXCLUSIVE: George Soros Gave $250K to British Group Working To Censor Conservative News Sites and ‘Kill Musk’s Twitter’
““NBC News colluded with a foreign left-wing group in an attempt to destroy us because it disagrees with our political commentary and media criticism,””— Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
“organizing a letter from State Attorneys General to the platform seeking to ban the so-called “Disinformation Dozen” over Covid-related content”— Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
“On June 16, financial blog Zero Hedge was banned from Google’s advertising platform, effectively demonetizing the site.”— Center for Countering Digital Hate - InfluenceWatch
“Recent randomized experiments have been used to delineate a causal relationship between faculty ideology and academic research... research teams composed of pro-immigration researchers estimated more positive impacts of immigration on public support for social programs.”— The ideological orientation of academic social science research 1960–2024
“The campaign to fire philosopher Nathan Cofnas for not believing woke dogmas has escalated to a demand to arrest him.”— Remind me not to vacation in Belgium
“Those who worked to identify and combat disinformation have faced lawsuits, congressional inquiries and attacks that have threatened their reputations, careers and personal safety”— Academic Misinformation Researchers are Still Under Attack
“In 2022, intelligence researcher Bryan Pesta was fired from his tenured position at Cleveland State University.”— How to Lose Tenure with One Sentence
“PolitiFact has basically failed this test. ... Most tellingly, it never provided updated accounts for readers explaining exactly what went on and why Sheskey and Rittenhouse ended up evading legal consequences.”— Why Would I Possibly Trust Bill Adair Or PolitiFact To Determine Which ‘Misinformation’ Should Be ‘Suppressed’?
Downfall

The assumption faced growing questions after the Washington Examiner published Gabe Kaminsky’s investigative series in February 2023. The articles documented that the Global Disinformation Index rated right-leaning sites as highest risk and left-leaning ones as lowest. Several funders including the UK Foreign Office and the National Endowment for Democracy withdrew support. The US State Department later sanctioned co-founder Clare Melford’s visa for allegedly coercing platforms to censor opposing views. [5]

Elon Musk’s release of the Twitter Files and his public call to shut down the Global Disinformation Index amplified criticism. Leaked Center for Countering Digital Hate documents revealed plans titled Kill Musk’s Twitter and raised questions about compliance with its nonprofit status. Musk sued the group in 2023. Congressional subpoenas sought donor information. [12][20][21]

A large-scale analysis of PolitiFact data from 2018 to 2021 that controlled for prominence and media coverage found no evidence that Republicans were fact-checked more than Democrats. Meta announced in 2025 that it would end its US fact-checking partnerships, including with PolitiFact, and rely instead on Community Notes. These developments suggested that centralized, top-down verification faced practical and political limits. [6][31]

The Disinformation Governance Board was shut down after months of controversy. Nina Jankowicz’s defamation suit against Fox News highlighted the intensity of the backlash but also the difficulty of maintaining public trust once charges of bias took hold. A substantial body of critics now argue that anti-disinformation efforts have become entangled with partisan incentives. Significant evidence challenges the original claim of neutrality, though defenders maintain that the underlying problem of false information remains real. [15][17]

▶ Supporting Quotes (24)
“Consider a recent exposé of the Global Disinformation Index (GDI)... This was only the most recent skirmish in the disinformation wars... Republicans in Congress have accused misinformation researchers of anti-conservative bias, and some companies have launched lawsuits against anti-disinformation organisations such as the GDI.”— Debunking Disinformation Myths, Part 2: The Politics of Big Disinfo
“Earlier this week UnHerd published an investigation which found that fact-checking organisations, including the Global Disinformation Index, were labelling political opinions, particularly those on the Right, as disinformation.”— Elon Musk: Global Disinformation Index should be shut down
“Critically examining the emergence of non-profit’s like GDI, Sayers said: “Under the umbrella term of disinformation, there’s been this huge blossoming of not-for-profits... [Disinformation flagging is] a way of moving what should be a political conversation into the realm of expertise and saying, ‘No, there is an official truth here. And if you don’t agree with it, you are dangerous, you’re irresponsible, your voice shouldn’t be heard.’”— Elon Musk Calls For Disinformation Non-Profit To Be ‘Shut Down’ After Editor Protests Site’s Blacklisting
““The psychological premise of human manipulability,” Hannah Arendt wrote, “has become one of the chief wares that are sold on the market of common and learned opinion.””— Bad News
“According to Tim Hwang, a lawyer who formerly led public policy at Google, this image is maintained by two “pillars of faith”: that digital ads are both more measurable and more effective than other forms of commercial persuasion.”— Bad News
“The alarming public image Packard’s bestseller created—ad men wielding some unholy concoction of Pavlov and Freud to manipulate the American public into buying toothpaste—is still with us today.”— Bad News
“In February 2023 the Washington Examiner... alleged bias from the GDI, releasing an investigative series... pointed out that all 10 outlets that GDI in a report identified as the "riskiest" and "worst" all leaned to the political right while all but one of the 10 ranked "least risky" leaned to the political left.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“In December 2025, the US State Department imposed a visa sanction on Melford, as founder of GDI, for leading what US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called "organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose".”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“The State Department-funded National Endowment for Democracy announced in 2023 that it would no longer fund GDI.”— Global Disinformation Index - Wikipedia
“We find little evidence that Republican officials are fact-checked more often than Democratic officials (Fig. 2A). In contrast to many expectations, we find no evidence that Republican elected officials are fact-checked more often than Democratic officials.”— Fact-checks focus on famous politicians, not partisans
“This is the first story in an ongoing series. Revolver will be interviewing and profiling regular, average Americans who were targeted by Comrade Zadrozny for life-threatening harassment. More to come.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“Long-time NPR senior editor Uri Berliner published a scathing indictment of the self-professed “public” media service’s ideological capture.”— Quotations from Chairman Maher
“But Maher has another problem: her archive of 29,400 tweets.”— Quotations from Chairman Maher
“This is the first story in an ongoing series. Revolver will be interviewing and profiling regular, average Americans who were targeted by Comrade Zadrozny for life-threatening harassment.”— Meet NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny - The Woman In Charge of Doxxing and Destroying Trump Supporters - Revolver News
“Canada’s Conservative Party appears to be opposed to the bill. Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre said on Feb. 21 that he won’t accept “Justin Trudeau’s woke authoritarian agenda” and called the Online Harms Act an “attack on freedom of expression.””— Major new Canadian legislation would penalize online hate at risk of censorship
“Twitter Files Revelation: Elon Musk's exposure of Twitter's internal communications revealed the depth of collusion between tech companies and intelligence agencies.”— The Censorship Industrial Complex
“Biden beat Trump in the popular vote by 51%-47% (+4), in the donor game, Biden beat Trump by 61-39% (+22%)... these figures... show Biden having more individual donors than Trump in every battleground state.”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“Fox News’s ‘vitriolic lies’ threaten democracy, says disinformation expert suing channel... in the wake of the $787m settlement with the voting machine company Dominion.”— Fox News’s ‘vitriolic lies’ threaten democracy, says disinformation expert suing channel
“in the donor game, Biden beat Trump by 61-39% (+22%)... protesting is generally a left-wing activity... liberals are in their personal lives more intolerant of conservatives”— Why is Everything Liberal?
“The grant, which has not been reported, could resurrect a longstanding battle that Musk has waged with both the CCDH and Soros.”— EXCLUSIVE: George Soros Gave $250K to British Group Working To Censor Conservative News Sites and ‘Kill Musk’s Twitter’
“leaked Stateside plans of an advisory group...show the group plans in writing to “kill Musk’s Twitter””— Election Exclusive: British Advisors to Kamala Harris Hope to "Kill Musk's Twitter"
“In July 2023, a lawyer representing Musk sent a letter accusing Ahmed and the CCDH of publishing falsified reports... In October 2024, documents leaked from the CCDH... claimed that the CCDH had a top priority “Kill Musk’s Twitter” campaign.”— Center for Countering Digital Hate - InfluenceWatch
“The complainant later withdrew the claim that institutional review board approval was required for my study (discussed in another part of Condemned).”— How to Lose Tenure with One Sentence
“Meta, that it will be ending its American fact-checking partnerships on Facebook in favor of a new, crowdsourced “Community Notes”-style feature.”— Why Would I Possibly Trust Bill Adair Or PolitiFact To Determine Which ‘Misinformation’ Should Be ‘Suppressed’?
Sources
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ID: FA-20260216-5dc1c9e6 · Created: 2026-02-16T18:58:44.984885 · Schema v3

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