Our friends at Unherd have done some brilliant work on how woke activists are using the cover of “disinformation” to defund mainstream right-of-centre online media. It’s not just Unherd and Guido Fawkes that are blacklisted by unaccountable ratings agencies that hoodwink advertising agencies by bracketing them as brand risks alongside Jihadi beheading websites and actual foreign intelligence disinformation operations. Popular sites like the Daily Sceptic, Breitbart, Conservative Woman, the Daily Mail and The Sun get downgraded by these self-appointed guardians of the “truth”.  In the video Freddie Sayers cites examples of these ratings agencies actually promoting demonstrable disinformation.

If an online publisher questions whether Greta Thunberg is right that the world really is on the edge of imminent climate catastrophe and human extinction, these agencies – funded by taxpayers – block advertising. Speculate that perhaps the pandemic did originate in Wuhan and it will cost you financially. It is an insidious form of censorship and should not be financed to the tune of £2.6 million by taxpayers. Foreign Office funding was designed to combat hostile foreign interests subverting democracy, not the free debate that is essential for democracy.