Elon Musk’s X, the social media company formerly known as Twitter, signed an exclusive partnership with a “misinformation” tracker linked to a government-funded group blacklisting conservative media outlets, records show.
On the heels of Musk in July describing how the social media company had negative cash flows due to a 50% drop in advertising revenue, X is teaming up with Integral Ad Science, an ad-verification company, for a “brand safety” initiative. That same ad group, which uses an artificial intelligence algorithm to rate alleged “misinformation,” is affiliated with the Global Disinformation Index, a British group with two affiliated U.S. nonprofit groups that the Washington Examiner revealed is covertly feeding blacklists of conservative websites to advertisers to defund disfavored speech.
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“I am completely against GDI in any form,” Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), who sits on the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees and has launched investigations into the British group over its alleged censorship efforts, told the Washington Examiner. “This new partnership with a group connected with GDI would only amplify the coercive and destructive powers targeting free speech.”
The partnership between X and IAS appears to undercut Musk’s touted commitment to free speech. The X owner has notably released “Twitter Files” documents to journalists, including Matt Taibbi, from Jack Dorsey’s time running the platform that show the company’s apparent coordination with the government to thwart right-leaning voices online.
He also responded to a recent Washington Examiner report on President Joe Biden’s White House apparently trying to “pressure” Facebook to moderate content, noting, “Interesting. Center for Censorship, Disinformation and Hate! That’s what they actually do.”
Interesting.
Center for Censorship, Disinformation and Hate! That’s what they actually do.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 3, 2023
On Tuesday, X announced it signed a one-year deal with IAS, whose CEO Lisa Utzschneider said the company classifies “content on behalf of marketers before they run their ads to ensure that the environment is brand safe and brand suitable for the advertiser.”
Twitter has reportedly used the company’s technology for years, but X is now gaining access through a trial to a pre-bid technology, which uses machine learning to place ads in alignment with a given company’s standards, for the “back half of this year” that will soon be available widely on X “before the end of the year,” according to Utzschneider.
Still, Republican lawmakers and watchdogs are raising concerns over the news.
In February, the Washington Examiner published a story detailing, among other things, how IAS has partnered with the Global Disinformation Index, which between 2020 and 2022 pocketed roughly $960,000 from the State Department’s Global Engagement Center and the National Endowment for Democracy, a government-backed nonprofit organization. The NED later announced it would no longer provide funding to GDI amid outcry from conservatives and First Amendment lawyers over GDI’s alleged censorship operation.
GDI has been the target of several congressional investigations over its efforts to thwart perceived disinformation. Microsoft launched an internal review into its relationship with the group, and Oracle severed ties with GDI.
Meanwhile, IAS has come under fire from free speech groups over its recommendations in the past to combat alleged “fake news” and “extremist” websites. It has urged companies to “use a combination of exclusion lists,” which it has claimed, separately, may not go far “enough” in fighting “fraud.” GDI has operated a “dynamic exclusion list” of right-leaning websites it deems the foremost peddlers of falsehoods, according to documents.
“This is a classic deal with the devil,” Mike Benz, executive director of the Foundation for Freedom Online, a censorship watchdog, told the Washington Examiner. “Except the devil here is the disinformation industry.”
Benz added that IAS exists to “demonetize alternative news voices” and pressure advertisers not to fund “political opponents.”
GDI, as of this writing, still lists IAS on its website as one of its partners. IAS in July 2021 called the British blacklister a “trusted third party that sets the standard for what qualifies as disinformation and focuses on restoring trust in media sites around the world by providing real-time automated risk ratings.” GDI CEO Clare Melford said at the time that the group’s “partnership with IAS is a powerful step forward for digital advertisers.”
The latest partnership announcement comes roughly one week after X accused a British nonprofit group called Center for Countering Digital Hate of putting forth “false” claims after alleging hate speech spiked on X after Musk’s October takeover. House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) then launched an investigation into the center, with the Washington Examiner publishing internal Facebook emails about the British entity and its efforts to flag speech as “disinformation.”
“It’s unquestionably a potential problem,” Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-WI), a member of the Oversight Committee, told the Washington Examiner.
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IAS did not provide comment in time for publication, pointing the Washington Examiner to a press release in which Utzschneider noted how IAS aims to give “marketers greater control through solutions that safeguard a brand’s interests and drive brand equity.”
“At X, balancing free expression and platform safety is our No. 1 priority — and we are proving these two things are not at odds,” X CEO Linda Yaccarino said. “Growing our partnership with IAS offers brands a new level of protection and transparency as they continue to grow on X.”
