The documents show that at the same time, the UK government employed external contractors; one of which is the British not-for-profit Global Disinformation Index which has the goal of disrupting and defunding "Disinformation sites."
The UK government states that CDU's purpose is to understand disinformation narratives and attempts to artificially manipulate the information environment, "To promote the facts." CDU also works with social media companies to "Encourage them to promote authoritative sources of information and consistently enforce their terms of service."
Global Disinformation Index GDI stands for Global Disinformation Index, a UK not-for-profit organisation which rates media sites based on the risk of the outlet carrying disinformation.
With a virtual team of 15 people, GDI's goal is to "Disrupt, defund and down-rank disinformation sites." As always, we must ask who defines what constitutes "Disinformation." To answer that question, who funds GDI is a good place to start.
Leo Docherty, Under Secretary of State at FCDO replied: "The FCDO Counter Disinformation and Media Development Programme has funded the Global Disinformation Index since 2019, for activities outside the US, providing £1,999,026 between 2019 and 2022, with a further £600,797 during the current financial year."
A quick search on GDI's website for reports relating to UK media returned no results however McGrogan found a report dated August 2021 titled 'Popular UK Brands Appearing Next To Misogynistic Narratives'.
Self-styled disinformation trackers such as GDI are, essentially, censorship by stealth because they cripple the potential of alternative news sources to compete on an even economic playing field with media outlets that disseminate the approved message.
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