Unmasking the Disinformation Index: A pseudo-nonprofit that “blacklists” conservative news from online advertisers.
Guest Post by Bob Bishop
The Constitution’s First Amendment allows freedom of expression from government regulations or restrictions; in other words, no censorship. The “fourth estate” term describes the news media that is the watchdog over the government. The amendment extends free speech to the independent media that delivers news and investigative journalism to the general public. Only a free press, based on truth and transparency, can effectively criticize and expose the government’s potential or actual wrongdoings.
The public is awakening to social media censorship (Twitter and Facebook) and the extreme bias of prominent media outlets (i.e., the New York Times) promoting and supporting the Federal and state governments’ narratives and totalitarian behavior. An emerging and highly destructive new strategy is “blacklisting” independent conservative media to defund them of advertising revenue, leading to their financial demise.
Censorship Think Tank
The mission of the Disinformation Index (“DI”), with its U.K. parent organization, Disinformation Index LTD. (“GDI”), is to defund conservation online news sites with claims of alleged disinformation. GBTDI disinformation focus is LBGT, climate denial, election fraud, illegal immigration, the RussiaUkraine border conflict, abortion, the Biden family’s foreign business dealings, and anti-vaccine content. The organizations invert facts and truth to create an adversarial political narrative.
Their rating system creates a blacklist shared with major advertising companies and advertising exchanges, including Google and Microsoft, to shut down disfavored speech by defunding advertising. These companies contract with GDIDI for information on who to target for defunding. When comparing GDI’s risk sources, the bias is highly apparent.
Evading Charity Laws
GDI was founded in the U.K. as a private limited corporation and is not registered as a charitable organization. It is led by extremists British Clare Melford and American Danny Rogers, CEO of DI.
Clare Melford’s YouTube presentation.
According to its IRS Determination Letter DI operates in Long Island City, NY. DI’s covert sibling charity, AN Foundation, shares the same address and mission statement. Danny Rodgers serves as CEO of both organizations. The organizations are Delaware corporations to hide the directors’ identities and protect them from personal liability.
DI and AN Foundation are headquartered in San Antonio to avoid filing their legal documents and tax returns with the New York state including required audited financial statements. Neither organization is registered with the New York State Charities Bureau, violating New York’s charity law.
A Washington, D.C., law firm responded to an online request for DI’s current 990 tax return by requiring a payment for the PDF tax return and sending the payment to DI’s San Antonio address. AN Foundation ignored a request for its tax return. The address is a shared office space that rents workspace by the month. The manager informed me that DI and AN Foundation are not renters but use the service that forwards their mail to an Oregon address. The two charities are also not registered with the State of Texas.
DI sent by certified mail the 2021 990 return, which was redacted to hide identities. The postage stamp was New York City (Zip Code 10017). Evidence it is operating in New York State.
Gateway Pundit Targeted
In a podcast on The Safety Tech Podcast last year, Clare Melford, GDI CEO, discussed its strategies for defunding conservative websites. She stated that the Gateway Pundit was on GDI’s exclusion hit list, which led to advertising companies and Google not monetizing its content. A link to the podcast is here, and the segment starts at 24.10.
Gateway Pundit appears regularly in GDI’s weekly tracker. GDI has scrubbed the weekly tracker reports from its website. However, below is an example from the Wayback Machine on the 2020 election fraud. The Wayback Machine link includes numerous weekly research lists that target leading conservative websites like Breitbart News, American Thinker, Fox Nation, and World News Daily.
State Department Funding
The Washington Examiner reported that U.S. taxpayer-funded National Endowment for Democracy and the State Department’s Global Engagement Center during 2020 and 2021 funded $665,000 to U.K. GDI. Funds used domestically to defund conservative websites.
Other high-profile funders are George Soros’s Open Society, the European Union, and the United Kingdom. The foreign governments have an adverse influence with the freedom of the press. Could DI be considered an agent for foreign governments and be required to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA)?
Pseudo Charities
DI and AN Foundation are pseudo-nonprofits founded and controlled by the GDI parent organization, which is also a pseudo-charity. They serve as feeder funds to finance GDI operations. GDI and DI are intertwined by sharing key employees, a website, a rating database, and international partnerships with a mission to obstruct the freedom of the press. Is this a violation of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) as well?
DI and AN Foundation failed to legally organize and operate as nonprofits; they are in defacto for-profit businesses and should be subject to Federal and New York corporate income taxes. Their efforts to prevent conservative speech go against the constitutional rights of conservative media.
Bob Bishop is a forensic investigator who held a CPA license for over 30 years. His social media accounts are – LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter […]
