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‘Florida rejects censorship!’ Patronis bars contracts with NewsGuard, other blacklisting orgs

August 5, 2024 | | Print Article

Florida will no longer be doing business with censorship groups like NewsGuard after a proclamation from the state’s Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis.

He issued a directive to the Florida Department of Financial Services (DFS) barring any contracts with “censorship & blacklisting” groups such as NewsGuard Technologies, Inc. The group and others like it “issue ‘credibility ratings’ on news sources to diminish information they don’t like,” Patronis wrote in a post on X announcing the directive.

“That’s wrong! ” he declared.

A press release explained that “Adverse ratings can diminish a legitimate news source’s reputation and advertising revenue, often intentionally, and are known to apply according to subjective factors, like political bias, not factual inaccuracies. ”

The directive bars the DFS from using “censorship media-monitoring services when making ad-buys or marketing placements.”

“This directive is aimed at holding censorship and blacklisting groups accountable. This year we’ll be launching media campaigns on protecting the public from insurance fraud and educating Floridians on the services DFS provides, and we need maximum returns on those dollars. We don’t need so-called media-monitoring groups being middlemen and burning up cash needlessly when we’re trying to get the best returns on our investments,” Patronis said in a statement.

“No taxpayer money from my agency will fund censorship on my watch, and no Florida business should suffer simply because it expresses views that these groups don’t like,” he added. “Such news and information ratings activities appear to be part of a larger effort to create social credit scores, similar to ESG, that result in debunking and deplatforming legitimate private entities.”

“That’s wrong, and I will use my authority as CFO to protect businesses and consumers against these abusive tactics,” Patronis vowed.

The proclamation states that the CFO “recognizes that First Amendment protections such as freedom of speech and freedom of the press are foundational American rights, critical to democracy, and must be safeguarded against illegitimate infringement.”

As BizPac Review has reported, NewsGuard employs a group of “trained journalists” to provide “trust ratings” on news sites such as BPR. A red check from NewsGuard could mean the site will face de-platforming and loss of critical advertising revenue. According to their website, the organization has partnered with both the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of State.

“Organizations like NewsGuard Technologies, Inc., the Global Disinformation Index, Graphika Technologies, Inc., and other similar organizations are attaching largely subjective ‘credibility ratings’ and ‘misinformation’ labels to news sources,” the Florida proclamation reads.

Patronis explained that “News source blacklisting means placing a news source on a list, or creating ratings systems and scores, indicating a news source is not considered credible or reliable, and such censorship and blacklisting activities also occur under the stated function of ‘fact-checking.’”

A $750,000 contract between NewsGuard and the U.S. Department of Defense was cited in a federal lawsuit that noted the connection as the group delivered “adverse credibility ratings for news sources that accurately reported on the Biden administration agency.”

“NewsGuard was investigated by the U.S. House Oversight Committee for its relationships with federal agencies, and its apparent failure to maintain a professed nonpartisan approach in light of ‘highly partisan social media activities by NewsGuard employees;'” the proclamation states.

The directive from Patronis noted that “All divisions within the Department of Financial Services that utilize promotional contracts for marketing and/or public education campaigns may not enter into or renew a contract or agreement with an entity for the purpose of developing, providing or using news source censorship or blacklisting services.”

Frieda Powers
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