The House of Representatives signed the annual defense bill, which passed at the committee level early Thursday morning, with the Pentagon signing groups aimed at rating and policing news sites, including groups accused of unfairly targeting conservatives. Incorporates a rule that prohibits

The regulation targets what is considered online disinformation and singles out the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), Graphika, NewsGuard and affiliated organizations that evaluate news sources based on accuracy and transparency. The UK-based GDI, working for the State Department, has been promoting conservative website monetization and platform decommissioning on a variety of technology and social media platforms, and has been recognized among activists and parliamentarians. , has raised concerns that many so-called “fact-checking” organizations are biased toward unjust judgments. -Slanted content.

Georgia Republican Rep. Rich McCormick, the proponent of the amendment, said, “The Department of Defense should contract with one of the many ‘misinformation’ or ‘disinformation’ watchdogs that evaluate news and sources. We are proud to have passed an amendment to ban it.” Said in a statement. “Though these media watchdogs claim to be nonpartisan, they really aren’t.” (Related: Exclusive: DHS panel courts left-wing agents to help crack down on ‘misinformation’)

The amendment was adopted as part of the House Armed Services Committee’s National Defense Authorization Act of 2024, which passed early Thursday morning, calling for Pentagon funding to be used to advise on the Global Disinformation Index, Graphika, NewsGuard, or “censorship advisory functions.” It prevents it from being sent to “other organizations”. Or, blacklist news sources on the basis of subjective criteria or political bias, based on their prescribed functions of “fact-checking” or removing “misinformation” from the Internet.

Advertising and marketing agencies employed by the Department of Defense (DOD) to recruit new employees must prove that they have not used any of the organization’s services, according to the text of the amendment.

We must stop taxpayer dollars being used to contract with groups that recommend censoring news sources based on political bias in the name of “fact-checking.”

Proud to support this @Rep_McCormick Fix! pic.twitter.com/qYGQdOt10V

— Mark Alford (@RepMarkAlford) June 21, 2023

The Department of Defense has offered NewsGuard Technologies a contract worth $749,387 in 2021 for services related to “misinformation fingerprinting” records. show. The U.S. Cyber ​​Command and the Department of State jointly ran a program to “Detect COVID-19 Misinformation and Disinformation” using NewsGuard’s “Misinformation Fingerprint.” toolIt used artificial intelligence to track high-profile misinformation online and “provide solutions to hoaxes related to the COVID-19 pandemic.” according to Go to news release.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) also received $80,000 for “prevention” in 2023, but details of the program were not immediately available, records said. show. The ISD is a UK-based non-profit organization that partners with social media platforms to identify and combat what has been termed online hate, extremism and misinformation.

However, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously found that the media has labeled mainstream conservative speech as hateful and disinformation, criticizing abortion, climate change, transgenderism, and critical racial theory. It is said that the content is evaluated in light of a narrowly defined liberal perspective on issues such as. The ISD has an aggressive contract with the State Department to “advance the development of promising and innovative technologies to combat disinformation and propaganda.”

Whitman’s amendment would block similar additional contracts.

DCNF has current or expired DoD contracts with GDI or Grafica, companies that have exposed the activities of the U.S. Central Command to monitor disinformation campaigns on social media and promote pro-American content on Twitter and Facebook. did not identify a valid contract.

ISD, NewsGuard, GDI and Graphika did not immediately respond to DCNF’s requests for comment.

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