House Oversight Investigates Newsguard’s Government Contracts and Censorship Allegations

House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer sent a letter to Newsguard requesting communications between the news rating website and government entities, including the Department of Defense (DOD). This is part of an investigation into “the impact of NewsGuard on protected First Amendment speech and its potential to serve as a nontransparent agent of censorship campaigns.”

The letter adds, “Our investigation has particularly focused on abuse of government authority to censor American citizens under the guise of protecting them from so-called misinformation. The protection of First Amendment rights of American citizens is paramount, and attempts by government actors to infringe on those rights is dangerous and misguided.”

The letter continues by referring to statements made by former Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. At the Sustainable Development Impact Meetings organized by the World Economic Forum, Kerry said, “…our First Amendment stands as a major block to be able to just … hammer it out of existence.” Kerry was referring to mis and disinformation.

While Kerry did not indicate that the First Amendment should be repealed or ignored, the statement caused many to question whether that was the overall intent. The HighWire reported about attempts to suppress online content that is deemed to be mis or disinformation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of those statements turned out to be truthful, but the comments were encouraging to vaccine skepticism. In 2003, Jeffery Jaxen reported on FDA Commissioner Robert Califf’s call for more censorship.

Comer’s letter confirms that Newsguard has performed work for the Department of Defense, the Joint Research Centre of the European Union, and the Global Engagement Center. The Newguard “about” page states, “NewsGuard provides transparent tools to counter misinformation for readers, brands, and democracies.”

In the summer of 2020, Newsguard announced it won the “Countering Disinformation Challenge” that was held by the Department of Defense. The press release states, “The contest sought solutions that would help the State Department and DoD “evaluate disinformation narrative themes in near real-time” by identifying online sources spreading COVID-19 disinformation or  misinformation narratives, understanding the nature and possible motives of those sources, and flagging hoaxes, narratives, and sources of disinformation as they emerge.”

In 2021, Newsguard announced a partnership with Publicis Groupe Partner, which is also listed as a primary investor in Newsguard. Publicis agreed to a settlement of $350 million for claims of “predatory and deceptive marketing practices” for Purdue Pharma and the drug OxyContin. Publicis implemented a plan called “Evolve to Excellence,” which involved targeted marketing campaigns to doctors, encouraging them to use higher doses for their patients.

The lawsuit filed against Publicis by the state of Massachusetts said, “Publicis devised and deployed unfair and deceptive marketing campaigns designed to push doctors to prescribe opioids to more patients, in higher doses, and for longer periods of time.”

Purdue Pharma and the opioid crisis were the subject of a Hulu docuseries called “Dopesick.” The series shows how the company knew about the addictive nature of OxyContin but conspired to cover up the truth about the drug. An NPR report from 2021 said that over a million Americans have died from drug overdoses since 1999, most of which involve fentanyl, which is a more potent opioid than OxyContin.

As part of the settlement, Publicis is not allowed to accept contracts related to the selling or marketing of opioid products. The public relations firm has several corporate clients, including Procter & Gamble, Sanofi, Nestle, and L’oreal. Sanofi provided support to BioNTech and Johnson & Johnson in the manufacturing of COVID-19 vaccines.

Publicis is also part of the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), which The HighWire reported about in August. The WFA created the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) to boycott advertisers that don’t follow the “brand safety standards.” Social media platform X and video platform Rumble both initiated lawsuits against the WFA for allegedly violating antitrust laws with the GARM program, which caused the WFA to disband the program. Sanofi and Johnson & Johnson are also a part of the WFA, along with many other large corporations that make up 90% of the world’s annual marketing expenses, which is about $900 million annually.

Newsguard is partially owned and partnered with Publicis, a public relations firm that settled out of court for manipulating doctors and the public about OxyContin. In addition, Publicis is associated with the WFA, which attempted to influence content through organized boycotts with the power of 90% of the world’s advertising dollars.

Mike Benz, the executive director of Foundation for Freedom Online, talked about how Newsguard is censoring what children can read in schools and is guided by heads of government agencies.

Benz said, “Behind who is censoring what your children can read in k-12 schools is the head of the CIA, the head of the NSA, the head of the military, the head of NATO, the head of the State Department, and the head of the DHS. It is that perfect aggregation of the “blob.” Newsguard calls itself set up by two journalists. Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz. They just do independent media rankings to make these media literacy designations about what news sources make you literate or illiterate. There are state laws now mandating these media literacy programs.”

Benz continued, “What this involves is preventing your children in k-12 schools and in universities from being able to cite to Prager University or being able to cite to the Heritage Foundation or being able to cite to any sort of news institution that’s deemed to be sort of vaguely pro-nationalist, you know, pro-domestic homeland as opposed to the international empire.”

Comer and the oversight committee have requested all documents and communication between Newsguard, the DoD, including the Defense Innovation Unit, and the U.S. Cyber Command relating to any contract, grant, or “other work performed in conjunction with the DoD.” The letter also requests all documents and communication with the Department of State, including the Global Engagement Center. Lastly, the oversight committee requests all communication and documents between Newsguard and any federal agency relating to any work completed “for or in conjunction with any federal department or agency.”