Disinformation Inc: Conservative group launches records inquiry over conservative news blacklists
Gabe Kaminsky
This is part of a Washington Examiner investigative series on self-styled “disinformation” tracking groups that are blacklisting and trying to defund conservative media outlets. Here is where you can read stories in the series.
A conservative advocacy group has opened a public records investigation following multiple Washington Examiner reports on the State Department bankrolling an organization blacklisting and taking steps to shut down conservative media.
Two State Department-backed entities, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Global Engagement Center, have granted $665,000 combined in 2020 and 2021 to the Global Disinformation Index, which has fed conservative website blacklists to advertising companies. Now, Americans for Prosperity Foundation, a Virginia-based nonprofit group, has filed Freedom of Information Act requests to both of these entities.
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DISINFORMATION INC: HOW A GOVERNMENT-BACKED GROUP BLACKLISTING CONSERVATIVES VIEWS ‘DISINFORMATION’
“Government-funded censorship of political views creates potential First Amendment concerns,” Kevin Schmidt, AFPF’s investigations director, said in a statement on Thursday. “Federal agencies don’t get to shut down ideas they don’t like – whether they’re doing it directly through bad policies or indirectly through vague grants. Recent reports about State Department funding raises serious questions. Americans deserve answers. And AFPF is committed to getting them.”
The conservative group sent the two requests on Thursday, noting that “tax dollars should not be used to censor U.S. citizens or companies.” AFPF is demanding “documents reflecting any financial support — or details of that support — given to the GDI, Disinformation Index, Inc., AN Foundation, Disinformation Index Foundation, or Park Advisers.”
Disinformation Index and Disinformation Index Foundation, previously the AN Foundation, are two U.S. nonprofit groups affiliated with GDI, the Washington Examiner reported. Park Advisers is an investment group that fights “disinformation, terrorism, violent extremism, hate speech” and was given the $100,000 that the Global Engagement Center later handed to GDI, according to the State Department.
AFPF is also asking for “internal and external communications” in the form of emails, texts, instant messages, and calendar items regarding money going to the various groups, according to the FOIA requests. It clarified a time period of Jan. 1, 2021, to present day.
“It’s one thing for people and private organizations to fact-check and push back against bad ideas,” said David Voorman, senior policy analyst for Americans for Prosperity. “It’s something entirely different for a powerful government actor to step into the game.”
Republican members of Congress have continued to raise concerns over the government funding GDI. Sens. Marco Rubio (FL) and Ron Johnson (WI) demanded an investigation on Wednesday.
“The internet was intended to democratize speech and the State Department has a mandate to stop authoritarian regimes’ attempts to silence it, but we’re now seeing just the opposite as governments and corporations collude to silence certain points of view,” Rubio, vice chairman of the Select Intelligence Committee, told the Washington Examiner.
“Americans deserve a full accounting of how their taxpayer dollars were used, and those responsible for violating the public trust should be held accountable,” Rubio added.
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Rep. James Comer (R-KY), chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee, said on Tuesday that he will “press” the Biden administration over the grants.
“U.S. taxpayer dollars should never be funneled to left-wing disinformation groups that are trying to blacklist American news outlets,” Comer told the Washington Examiner. “Freedom of speech and the press are core American values and must be protected against radical progressives seeking to censor opinions and facts that don’t fit their political narrative.”