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Democrats have successfully pressured online platforms to censor conservative opinions, and it is time Republicans started fighting back.

New investigative reporting from the Washington Examiner shows that well-funded international nonprofit organizations are systematically labeling conservative outlets such as the Washington Examiner as “disinformation,” all for having the temerity to suggest that there are established scientific differences between men and women.

DISINFORMATION INC: MEET THE GROUPS SECRETLY BLACKLISTING CONSERVATIVE NEWS

Here is how the scam works. First, Democratic politicians such as former President Barack Obama, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) threaten online platforms with regulation unless they crack down on “misinformation.”

What is misinformation? Well, that is where deep-pocketed groups such as the Global Disinformation Index come in. GDI maintains a secret “dynamic exclusion list” of news outlets that it encourages advertisers and platforms to avoid so the “financial incentive” to create “disinformation” is removed. The list is made by GDI’s “advisory panel,” which is made up of leftist journalists and academics.

To give you a sense of what kind of “disinformation” can get you listed on GDI’s “dynamic exclusion list,” GDI flagged the Washington Examiner as a purveyor of “misinformation” for publishing an opinion piece that noted the cultural norm of “a binary framework of binary sex” has existed since at least the first publication of Genesis, not since 1776, as some gender theorists claim.

Other topics that can land you on GDI’s blacklist include the effectiveness of masks in preventing the spread of COVID-19, the origins of COVID-19, abortion, and the “narrative” that “there’s a corrupt elite working only for themselves, not serving the common man.” All of these perfectly normal and safe conservative opinions can get your news publication demonetized by GDI.

Conservative outlets including the American Spectator, Newsmax, the Federalist, the American Conservative, One American News Network, the Blaze, the Daily Wire, RealClearPolitics, Reason, and the New York Post have all been targeted for censorship by GDI.

Meanwhile, GDI gives its highest and safest rating to NPR, the New York Times, the Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, and the Huffington Post. Each of these publications participated in a disinformation campaign to spread a debunked conspiracy theory about collusion between former President Donald Trump and Russia, yet none was flagged for spreading falsehoods.

Advertisers and social media platforms should not get away with outsourcing their censorship decisions to biased international organizations stacked with extremists. Democrats have used their bully pulpit to browbeat platforms into censoring conservative outlets, and Republicans must fight back and demand equal treatment.

The worst part of all is that Democrats have threatened to remove Section 230 liability protections from platforms if they don’t buy the services of these malignant leftist censors. Republicans should promise to remove Section 230 protections for anyone who does hire them.

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