The Government is no longer funding the Global Disinformation Index, Foreign Secretary David Cameron has said, following criticism of the organisation for censoring non-woke and Right of centre views. UnHerd, which says it has seen the ministerial letter, has the story.
[Cameron] was responding to a letter sent last month by Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch, who highlighted concerns about the GDI blurring the line between free speech and disinformation which were raised following an UnHerd investigation last month.In the response, Cameron confirmed that “the FCDO has not funded GDI since 2023, and there are no current plans to do so”. He then underlined that section by hand, and added, hand-written, “thanks for pointing this out”.
He added that while countering disinformation from adversaries was important, “protecting free speech is a priority for the department”, going on to say that organisations supported by the Government should “uphold our values”.
The letter maintains that the Foreign Office is committed to opposing disinformation, specifically from Russia, and would continue working with technology and media organisations, but would not be providing funding to the GDI to do so.
In April, UnHerd published an investigation showing that the GDI published a “dynamic exclusion list” which associated holding gender-critical views with disinformation. UnHerd was placed on this list for publishing work from columnists Kathleen Stock and Julie Bindel, who were both accused of articles which discriminated against transgender people.
While the Government has not provided funding to the GDI since 2023, it is understood that the company has held meetings with Foreign Office officials about resuming funding.
Worth reading in full.
The story has also been reported on Guido.
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