Disinformation Inc: State Department-backed group cuts ties with group blacklisting conservative news

As a direct result of multiple Washington Examiner reports, a State Department-backed nonprofit group is severing its financial relationship with a "disinformation" tracking organization that is secretly blacklisting and taking steps to shut down conservative media.

The National Endowment for Democracy, a group funded almost entirely through congressional appropriations, granted $545,750 between 2020 and 2021 to the Global Disinformation Index, which is feeding conservative website blacklists to advertising companies. Amid GOP lawmakers raising concerns, the National Endowment for Democracy is taking steps to distance itself from the purported "disinformation" monitor and will no longer be providing it future grant money, the nonprofit group told the Washington Examiner.

"As set forth in our Articles of Incorporation and the NED Act, our mandate is to work around the world and not in the United States," Leslie Aun, the group's vice president of communications, told the Washington Examiner. "We have strict policies and practices in place so that NED and the work we fund remains internationally focused, ensuring the Endowment does not become involved in domestic politics."