It’s no longer just Google that has banned permanently all advertising going to WND and a few other sites.
Now Microsoft has joined an orgy of backlisting against WND, blocking any advertising that makes it through the Google and Facebook stranglehold.
Days ago, a report from the Washington Examiner identified WND, the pioneering news site that was founded back in 1997 and the first to challenge established media, as victim of this advertising blacklisting.
Among the false claims made against the targeted conservative sites is that they were peddling “disinformation.” That’s projection for you.
Other websites identified included the Washington Examiner itself, Daily Wire, Real Clear Politics, Hot Air, Newsmax, Daily Caller, Life News, MRCTV, Breitbart, Redstate, The Blaze and more.
As part of a series about groups tracking supposed “disinformation” and then discriminating against conservative opinions and reporting, the Examiner explained how Xandr, a major advertising company that “subscribes to a left-leaning ‘disinformation’ group’s secret blacklist,” has been flagging those with comments with which it disagrees.
Worse yet, Xandr has been actively “taking steps to defund and deplatform them.”
The report explained, “The Global Disinformation Index [GDI], a British organization with two affiliated U.S. nonprofit groups, is feeding secret blacklists to ad companies, such as Xandr, with the intent of shutting down websites peddling alleged ‘disinformation.'”
The Examiner also reported that Xandr, which Microsoft bought in 2021 for $1 billion, “has targeted disfavored speech and blocked conservative websites from reaping key ad dollars.”
“Xandr’s use of politically motivated flags on this blacklist stands outside of the norm in advertising,” a senior executive at an ad company told the Examiner. He noted that the real purpose of blacklisting should be to protect brands from advertising ‘on content that is illegal, fraudulent, [or] low-quality.'”
Continued the Examiner report: “In this case, Xandr prevented us from talking to our voters in the critical days leading up to Election Day. Our audience reads the Examiner, Daily Wire, Townhall, etc. Voters go to these news & opinion sites [to] inform their decisions. And if Microsoft is using their technology to block us from showing ads on these websites, they’re actively preventing us from talking to voters on the public squares where their decisions are being informed.”
In other words, it’s another case of “election tampering” as an executive of the company candidly admitted – albeit anonymously.
WND was one of the most successful sites in the world for a long time – operating on virtually an even playing field until Donald Trump began his run for the presidency. That was clearly the turning point – 2015. It was the first time since WND’s founding more than 25 years ago that the news site enthusiastically supported a presidential candidate.
Since advertising is our main source of revenue and sustenance, and Google and other search engines our primary source of traffic, the Tech Cabal began its assault in those realms.
Then, when it came time for the crucial 2020 election, that’s when three major international online ad companies that had long supported WND all suddenly decided, at almost the exact same time, to cancel us – just before the most important presidential contest of our lifetime.
The ad companies blacklisting WND – namely Xandr, TripleLift and Teads – all cited vague breaches of their terms of service, including, “any content that is illegal or otherwise contrary to any applicable law, regulation, directive, guideline or order, including without limitation any misleading, unethical, obscene, defamatory, deceptive, gambling-related or hateful content.”
They suddenly didn’t like our politics. They were at odd with America’s voters, too.
Other websites targeted by Xandr included the Epoch Times, Hannity, Washington Times, Lifezette, Bill O’Reilly, Daily Signal, Judicial Watch, Chicks on the Right, Mike Huckabee, OANN, RSB Network, Charlie Kirk, Glenn Beck, American Thinker, Townhall, Newsbusters, Wayne Dupree, Louder with Crowder, CNS, Twitchy, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Free Republic, Law Enforcement Today and Drudge.
Xandr announced just last year that it was adopting Global Disinformation Index standards for trying to hurt voices with which it disagrees.
“Domains or apps that GDI has classified as a disinformation site will be added to Xandr’s global blocklist, preventing spend to those domains or apps,” an email on the issue confirmed.
“What we see going on is not new,” Dan Schneider, vice president for the Media Research Center’s Free Speech Alliance group, told the Examiner. “We saw redlining efforts to prevent blacks from buying homes in certain communities. We saw blacklists in Hollywood to prevent people with different political beliefs from appearing in movies and getting writing contracts.”
The Examiner also has revealed that the State Department has given $330,000 to the Global Disinformation Index for its efforts to suppress dialogue – and the First Amendment.
An update from the Examiner Monday reported that, its misdeeds exposed, Microsoft has suddenly “removed negative flags for conservative media outlets that have blocked them from reaping key advertising dollars. …” Color me skeptical.
The truth is, the onslaught of blacklisting, banning, demonetization and suppression by every means imaginable has been constant for eight years. What could we do in the face of such never-ending attacks on us?
We turned to our most important constituency – our beloved readers who turn to us for the truth.
And we continue to rely on reader support, but it’s very difficult – because Google, by far the world’s largest search engine, controls how many people SEE WND. So, as you can imagine, it’s tough to survive the overwhelming forces arrayed against us.
Please consider helping WND to weather the ongoing attacks against us by making a generous tax-deductible donation to the nonprofit 501(c)(3) WND News Center. You can designate a one-time gift or a repeating monthly donation, using credit/debit card or PayPal. Or you can mail your tax-deductible contribution by making your check out to “WND News Center” and mailing it to: WND News Center, P.O. Box 100, 580 E Street, Hawthorne, NV 89415-0100.
For anyone who is in a position to contribute $5,000 or more, I urge you to call the number of our financial director at 775-945-5958 (Monday-Thursday, 10:30 am-5:30 pm Pacific) so we can provide you any information you might need. Or email him at [email protected].
For still more ways to help, please check out HELP WND.
Thank you so much for your past support – including those who were so generous toward the end of 2022, since you’ve kept us going through January. However, WND’s financial needs continue to grow because of the kind of Biden-era, anti-conservative, anti-Christian Big Tech and woke advertising company bias toward us discussed above.
God bless you for taking the time to read this – and for whatever measure you are moved to help us now. Thank you.
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