Steve Brill, who also serves as the site’s co-CEO, made this call in his book titled “The Death of Truth.” The book explains the rise of “fake news” and outlines a way to return to a world where “truth is valued” – including practical solutions to achieve this goal.
Such actions include funding media literacy programs and prohibiting anonymous posting online. According to Brill, the second proposal would make it easier to hold tech companies accountable for false content on their platforms. Banning anonymity online would also make it easier for parties to pursue legal actions against these companies for violating their own terms of service. (Related: NewsGuard co-founder advocates banning anonymous social media posts, enabling lawsuits against tech firms for “false” content.)
The NewsGuard co-founder and co-CEO explained that Silicon Valley executives designed social media algorithms to prioritize divisive content for profit. Automated advertising systems penalize reliable news while rewarding sensationalism, he added. Thus, politicians and conspiracy theorists utilize these platforms to deceive the public and foreign adversaries exploit these same platforms for disinformation campaigns.
All this as NewsGuard under investigation by the GOP-controlled House
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In June, HOC Chairman Rep. James Comer (R-KY) formally requested a comprehensive set of documents from Brill and his co-CEO Gordon Crovitz. The requested documents must include all records of government contracts, explanations for any gaps in documentation, records of policy violation disciplinary actions, policies on managing conflicts of interest, communications from investors about news evaluations and data on corrections prompted by NewsGuard’s inquiries.
Also requested were records of NewsGuard’s editorial errors and its policies for revising previous evaluations. The rating system for news sites was accused of threatening free speech for its excessively aggressive attitude toward the news content published by independent and right-leaning media outlets.
Moreover, the committee raised concerns about NewsGuard’s potential impact on financially vulnerable media outlets. They referenced a journalist who fears that NewsGuard’s activities could be part of a broader federal initiative, previously criticized by the judiciary, to influence social media platforms and jeopardize the economic stability of certain publishers.
The request for transparency follows the legal actions of multiple parties – including the state of Texas and independent media outlets The Federalist and the Daily Wire – against the federal government’s decision to allocate nearly $750,000 in funding to NewsGuard. The plaintiffs argue that such funding supports a biased approach to monitoring media.
These parties claim in the lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of Texas by the New Civil Liberties Alliance in December, that the Department of State is misusing its resources to target American citizens and media under the guise of combating disinformation through the Global Engagement Center (GEC). Established in 2011 and initially intended to counter foreign terrorist propaganda, the GEC now funds NewsGuard and the U.K.-based Global Disinformation Index to limit ad revenue for conservative media.
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