Reception
In February 2023 the Washington Examiner , a U.S. conservative website, alleged bias from the GDI, releasing an investigative series that characterised GDI as "part of a stealth operation blacklisting and trying to defund conservative media, likely costing the news companies large sums in advertising dollars". [25] The journalist who authored that series of stories, Gabe Kaminsky, pointed out that all 10 outlets that GDI in a report [26] identified as the "riskiest" and "worst" all leaned to the political right while all but one of the 10 ranked "least risky" leaned to the political left. [25] Kaminsky said that GDI received $100,000 from the U.S. Department of State. [27] [28] [29] However, the State Department has denied that the grant was used to "blacklist" any companies in the U.S. [30] [31]
The series in the Washington Examiner sparked outcry among conservatives, and prompted a lawsuit by The Daily Wire and The Federalist , two U.S. right-wing websites, against the State Department. [32] [33] The State Department-funded National Endowment for Democracy announced in 2023 that it would no longer fund GDI. [34] After the series of stories, Microsoft's Xandr cut ties with GDI and exited the political advertising space. [35] [36] Congress passed a law in 2023 that banned the Pentagon from funding GDI in the future for military recruitment advertising. [37]
In April 2024, UnHerd CEO Freddie Sayers criticized GDI after it placed UnHerd on its "dynamic exclusion list", leading to a reduction in UnHerd's advertising revenue. [38] [39] Sayers argued that GDI's determination was based on ideological disagreements rather than factual inaccuracies. [11] [40] In response, Elon Musk, the CEO of Twitter, called for GDI to be shut down. [41]
Following UnHerd's article, UK Business Secretary Kemi Badenoch joined around 10 MPs in raising concerns about GDI and their approach to distinguishing between free speech and disinformation. [42] In response to Badenoch's concerns, Foreign Secretary David Cameron stated that FCDO had ceased funding GDI in 2023 and did not plan to resume funding. [43] [40]
In December 2025, the US State Department imposed a visa sanction on Melford, as founder of GDI, for leading what US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called "organized efforts to coerce American platforms to censor, demonetize, and suppress American viewpoints they oppose". [44] [45]
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