Journalist Claims Government-Funded Watchdog Blocking Media Ad Sales by Spreading ‘Disinformation’
The editor of a UK media website testified before a parliamentary hearing that their company suffered from a lack of advertising revenue due to being labeled as “disinformation” by a government-funded private company.
Freddie Sayers, the editor of UnHerd, appeared before a House of Lords select committee on the future of news on April 16 and raised the issue of “disinformation.”
Last year, the publication attempted to place ads on its website, but only received a small fraction of expected advertisers. The reason for this was linked to a third-party tech company, Grapeshot, which used the Global Disinformation Index (GDI) to filter potential clients based on “brand safety.”
UnHerd was placed on a “Dynamic Exclusion List” by Grapeshot, which meant it was flagged as an outlet that companies might not want to be associated with due to potentially damaging their brand.
The reason for this exclusion was that UnHerd had hosted “gender critical” writers and academics, including Julie Bindel and Professor Kathleen Stock.
Although the beliefs expressed were not illegal or considered “hate speech,” Mr. Sayers was informed that UnHerd was seen as promoting “anti-trans” and “anti-LGBT” narratives, despite having articles by trans-identified writer Debbie Hayton.
Mr. Sayers highlighted the issue as uncovering a system of censorship that spans continents and needs greater awareness.
Founded in 2017 by Sir Paul Marshall, UnHerd aims to promote “slow news” and features authors with various political viewpoints.
