The head of a State Department-backed think tank under congressional investigation for starving conservative media of advertising dollars is set to teach a one-day course on the “economics of disinformation,” records show.
CEO Clare Melford of the Global Disinformation Index, a London group with two affiliated American nonprofit organizations Republicans have argued is engaged in “censorship” while pocketing U.S. government money, is listed as the trainer for an online class in September on the “economics of disinformation,” according to an application link posted in July. The module is being offered by a little-known project composed of “fact-checkers and academic researchers” that is focused on thwarting “online disinformation” and received the equivalent of $4.3 million in 2022 from an agency under the European Union, according to documents reviewed by the Washington Examiner.
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“GDI’s sole purpose of existence is to Bankrupt Your Business, if you are in the news media business and you publish a regime-critical editorial line,” said Mike Benz, head of the speech watchdog Foundation for Freedom Online and an ex-Trump State Department official — noting Melford’s reference to the “economics of disinformation” seemingly corresponds to how her group aims to defund “your business, your company, and your livelihood.”
Since an initial February Washington Examiner report, GDI has been roundly criticized by Republicans in Congress for its covert operation of feeding blacklists of right-leaning websites to advertisers with the intent of shutting down disfavored speech. Top lawmakers, including House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY), have demanded answers from the State Department and a nonprofit group it almost entirely bankrolls called the National Endowment for Democracy, which has since cut ties with GDI, for granting roughly $960,000 combined from 2020 to 2022 to the British think tank.
The European Digital Media Observatory, which is based at the European University Institute’s School of Transnational Governance in Florence, Italy, counts the likes of the University of Amsterdam, a think tank called the Integrity Institute that dubs itself “a community of integrity professionals protecting the social internet,” and Aarphus University in Denmark, according to its website. In 2022, the observatory was awarded a contract through the EU’s European Commission agency for “communications networks,” funding documents show.
Melford’s Sept. 19 training module “is open to stakeholders working to tackle disinformation including journalists, policy-makers, and researchers,” according to the application, which includes a description instructing the public that mere “content moderation” is not enough to fight “disinformation,” and that there ought to be “algorithmic moderation” online.
“Because as a society we have made the decision not to pay for most online content, we have evolved an internet that has advertising as the main means of earning revenue for content producers and technology companies,” the description reads. “The inevitable consequence of that decision, coupled with the almost zero barriers to entry to make content on the internet, has led to the ‘engagement at all costs’ business model we see today.”
The application states, “GDI will share how it creates independent risk signals about online news content that are being used by technology companies that use algorithms to put content in front of us. And how when given the choice, advertisers choose not to place their ads on the most polarizing content on the internet.”
It’s unclear whether Melford will be sharing with those in attendance at the course any non-public information about GDI’s “dynamic exclusion list,” which houses websites the group deems to be “high risk for disinformation.” While the list has not been released by GDI, the Washington Examiner obtained leaked data from a whistleblower in February showing that Microsoft’s Xandr, an ad subsidiary that subscribed to the list, was blacklisting brands from placing ads in dozens of major right-leaning publications.
Shortly after the data was published, Microsoft announced an internal investigation into its relationship with GDI, though it has stonewalled on providing details about the review. Oracle, which also subscribed to GDI’s list, said in April that it was severing ties with GDI over “free speech” concerns.
“While fighting the so called ‘economics of disinformation,’ GDI is peddling their own ‘economics of censorship’ abroad and billing the U.S. taxpayers,” Pete McGinnis, a spokesman for the Functional Government Initiative, an ethics watchdog, told the Washington Examiner.
The EU agency listed in funding documents as supporting the observatory says in its mission statement it “develops and implements policies to make Europe fit for the digital age,” while “respects our democratic values, our fundamental rights and cultural diversity.”
As for the observatory, it has published dozens of reports since 2020 on alleged disinformation, mostly on COVID-19. The observatory in 2023, for instance, published sets of recommendations for Nordic states to boost “digital literacy” that grappled with how to address “the spreading of misinformation, disinformation, and other forms of harmful information online,” documents show.
“These efforts empower the ever-growing censorship industrial complex determined to police free speech and punish those who threaten their narrative and special interests,” McGinnis said. “Asking the public to fund censorship efforts like GDI is government dysfunction at its worst.”
News of the forthcoming training comes weeks after Elon Musk’s X signed an exclusive partnership agreement with Integral Ad Science, an ad-verification company that partners with GDI, records show. Rep. Ken Buck (R-CO), who sits on the House Judiciary and Foreign Affairs committees and has launched investigations into GDI over its “disinformation” tracking efforts, said the team-up “would only amplify the coercive and destructive powers targeting free speech.”
Buck in mid-April pressed Melford for information following a Washington Examiner story that revealed how the two GDI American nonprofit groups redacted their 2021 financial disclosures, while claiming the group could do so because it was being “harassed.” Multiple tax attorneys said GDI’s move appeared unlawful, with the conservative watchdog National Legal and Policy Center later filing an IRS complaint in May against the blacklist network.
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The European Digital Media Observatory and Global Disinformation Index did not reply to requests for comment.
A Washington Examiner reporter applied to be admitted to Melford’s class, though hasn’t received a decision yet from the observatory.
