In\u2062 May 2021, L. Gordon Crovitz, a media executive turned start-up investor, presented Twitter\u2064 executives \u2064with an \u2063intriguing\u200c proposal. <\/p>\n

Recently revealed in the “Twitter Files” expose on media censorship, \u2063Crovitz, former publisher of the Wall Street Journal, pitched his\u200c product, NewsGuard, as a “Vaccine\u2063 Against Misinformation.” He \u2064emphasized a separate tool, \u2064in addition to\u200c the existing Microsoft\u2063 Edge browser extension, specifically designed for content moderation teams. Crovitz promised an out-of-the-box solution that would utilize artificial intelligence and NewsGuard algorithms to \u200dquickly evaluate content based on hashtags and search terms\u2063 associated with harmful information.<\/p>\n

Read NewsGuard\u2019s email and RealClearInvestigations\u2019 response about RCI\u2019s reporting here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But how would the company determine what is true? For topics like Covid-19, NewsGuard would only direct readers to official government sources, such as the federal Centers for Disease Control. Crovitz’s pitch also mentioned\u2064 other allies in content moderation, \u200bincluding intelligence \u2062and national security \u200bofficials<\/a>, reputation management providers, and\u2063 government agencies. NewsGuard \u200caimed to \u200drate the overall reliability of websites and preemptively debunk Covid-19 misinformation from popular \u2062sites, rather than just\u2064 fact-checking individual pieces of false information.<\/p>\n

NewsGuard’s unsuccessful pitch sheds light on the \u200dglobal trend of governments \u2063policing speech, from \u2064disinformation to dissenting opinions. In the United States, \u200bas revealed in the “Twitter Files,” the government often directly appeals to \u2064social media platforms and news outlets. More commonly, it works through\u2063 seemingly innocent non-governmental organizations, like the Stanford Internet Observatory, to suppress disapproved speech. It also pays companies like NewsGuard to \u200bcontrol speech through government \u2063contracts.\u200d NewsGuard, founded by Crovitz and \u2062Steven Brill, aims to monetize the reshaping of the internet, with\u2063 a potential market worth $1.74 billion.<\/p>\n

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Unlike other anti-misinformation groups\u200b that provide rebuttals, \u200cNewsGuard categorizes entire news sites as trustworthy or untrustworthy using a grading\u200b system called \u2064”nutrition labels.” These ratings, displayed next to a website’s name on the Microsoft Edge browser, evaluate the site \u200dbased on nine\u2064 criteria, \u2064such as responsible information \u200dpresentation and\u200c avoidance\u200c of deceptive headlines. Critics argue that these ratings are subjective, as evidenced\u200c by The New \u2062York Times receiving a perfect score despite publishing false information. Independent news outlets with alternative perspectives also receive low\u200d ratings from \u200cNewsGuard.<\/p>\n
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