Global Disinformation Index, inform on thyself

GDI earned itself additional criticism this week, after the U.S. Energy Department endorsed the lab leak theory of COVID-19’s origins. Previous reports by GDI warned advertisers to blacklist news sites that attempted to blame the pandemic on a lab leak, and implied that any website asserting a cover-up on the part of the Chinese government was promoting racist disinformation with the capacity of harming Asian people. GDI’s messaging on the lab leak theory was clear and consistent: News websites that explored this topic should be demonetized. …

Portraying the lab leak notion as a dangerous, racist conspiracy theory never made any sense, and journalists, health officials, and disinformation trackers—like GDI—that enforced this narrative should feel profoundly embarrassed.

But that’s not all GDI has to atone for.