| NewsGuard | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Developers | NewsGuard Technologies, Inc. |
| Initial release | March 2018; 7 years ago (2018-03) |
| Stable release | |
| Platform | Browser extension |
| Type | Browser extension |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www |
NewsGuard is a rating system for news and information websites. It is accessible viabrowser extensions andmobile apps. It rates publishers based on whether they have transparent finances or publish many errors, among other criteria.[2] NewsGuard Technologies Inc., the company behind the tool, also provides services such asmisinformation tracking andbrand safety for advertisers, search engines, social media platforms, cybersecurity firms, and government agencies.[3][4]
NewsGuard Technologies was founded in 2018 bySteven Brill andL. Gordon Crovitz, who serve as co-CEOs.[5] Crovitz was a former publisher ofThe Wall Street Journal.[2] In 2018,Joyce Purnick, former bureau chief and editor atThe New York Times, and Amy Westfeldt, an editor with theAssociated Press for 25 years, joined Newsguard.[6]
In April 2019, the co-founders of NewsGuard announced that they had entered talks with Britishinternet service providers to incorporate their credibility scoring system into consumer internet packages. Under the plans, a user would see a warning message before visiting a misleading site without needing to have the NewsGuard extension installed. Users would also have the ability to disable the feature.[7]
In January 2020, NewsGuard began notifying users that it would become a paid, member-supported browser extension in early 2020, while remaining free for libraries and schools. Early adopters received a 33% discount on the price, paying $1.95/month (USD) or £1.95/month (UK). They plan to roll out new premium features, including a reliability score, and offer new mobile apps forAndroid andiOS.[8][needs update]
NewsGuard launched in Australia and New Zealand in March 2023.[9]
NewsGuard is based inNew York City.[10] It raised $6 million in 2018.[11] Investors include theKnight Foundation,Publicis, and formerReuters executiveTom Glocer.[12][13] Its advisors include former officials such asTom Ridge (formerSecretary of Homeland Security),Richard Stengel (formerUnder Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs),Michael Hayden (formerDirector of the CIA),Anders Fogh Rasmussen (formerSecretary General of NATO), andWikipedia founderJimmy Wales.[14][7]
As of 2019, the company employed 35 journalists to review over 2,000 news sites. Ratings are broken down in terms of reliability, trustworthiness, and financial conflict of interest. This and additional information is then displayed in the form of a "Nutrition Label" by the NewsGuardbrowser extension whenever a user visits a news site. Sites that pass are shown with a green icon next to their name. Those with low scores are shown with a red icon. Research has shown that readers who see the green icon find the corresponding news site more accurate and trustworthy compared to those who see no icon or a red icon.[14][15] Brill positions the extension as an alternative to government regulation and automated algorithms, such as those used byFacebook.[14] NewsGuard attempts to advise sites that it labels as unreliable on how to come into compliance with its rating criteria.[16]
NewsGuard operates a consumer-facing browser extension[10] andmobile apps foriOS andAndroid.[17] Supported browsers for the browser extension includeGoogle Chrome,Microsoft Edge,Firefox, andSafari. It is included by default in the mobile version of Edge, although users must enable it.[17]
For revenue, NewsGuard Technologies licenses their ratings. Clients include technology companies and the advertising industry, who view the ratings as a way to protect clients against advertising on sites that could harm their brand.[12] It also contracts with theUnited States Department of Defense.[18][19] NewsGuard expanded its coverage to news in European languages such as French and German ahead of the2019 European Parliament election.[20][21] As of January 2021, NewsGuard said it has rated more than 6,000 news sites that account for 95% of online engagement with news in the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany and Italy.[22] In January 2022, the company said it was profitable, having doubled its revenue over the last year.[11]
Since 2022, NewsGuard has partnered with theAmerican Federation of Teachers (AFT) so that many classrooms and libraries in the United States have the NewsGuard browser extension installed on their computers, expanding access to millions of users.[23]
In March 2024, NewsGuard announced it would be launching services aimed at counteringAI-generated election misinformation. It also announced partnerships with technology companies such asMicrosoft, which has licensed NewsGuard's products to train its new version of itsBing search engine.[24]
NewsGuard's founders cautioned that its "Nutrition Label" should not be treated as an endorsement equivalent to thenutrition facts label from theFood and Drug Administration.[12] As of March 2023,The Guardian Australia,ABC News Australia andThe Australian had scored 100/100 when the service launched in Australia.[25] As of June 2024, NewsGuard ratedFox News at 69.5,Breitbart News at 49.5,The New Republic at 92.5,Mother Jones at 69.5, andThe Washington Post at 100.[26] In 2024, it downgradedThe New York Times from 100 to 87.5 for not distinguishing clearly enough between opinion and fact.[26] As of December 2024, NewsGuard ratedNewsmax andOne America News Network at 20.[27]
In 2018,Joshua Benton wrote in theColumbia Journalism Review that NewsGuard is "trying to attack a real problem in misinformation; they’re doing interesting work that I enjoyed exploring. But the upside of this sort of labeling — a quick way to make a judgment at a glance — is in direct tension with the nuance modernmedia literacy requires."[28]
CEOL. Gordon Crovitz said in 2024, "Under NewsGuard's apolitical rating system, many conservative outlets outscore similar left-leaning brands:The Daily Caller outscoresThe Daily Beast, theDaily Wire outscores theDaily Kos, Fox News outscoresMSNBC andThe Wall Street Journal outscores theNew York Times."[2] Sites that had previously ignored the extension, such asMailOnline, objected to being listed as unreliable.[29] The decision to listMailOnline as unreliable was reversed in 2019, and NewsGuard admitted they were wrong on some counts.[30]
NewsGuard's partnership with the AFT was criticised by conservatives and Republican politicians, who said that NewsGuard ranked left-leaning media outlets higher than right-leaning ones, citing a study by theMedia Research Center in 2021.[31][a]
In 2024,The Daily Wire,The Federalist andTexas attorney generalKen Paxton sued theDepartment of State, arguing that providing a $25,000 grant to NewsGuard was funding technology that censored right-leaning news outlets.[24][36] TheBiden administration sought to have the case dismissed, but federal judgeJeremy Kernodle agreed with the plaintiff and allowed the case to proceed.[36] Republican politicians in theU.S. House of Representatives opened a probe into NewsGuard in June 2024.[2]
Brendan Carr, who becameDonald Trump's appointee to theFederal Communications Commission, also accused NewsGuard of censorship and sent a letter to some tech companies to discourage them from working with NewsGuard. Some legal experts said that NewsGuard's opinions on sites' credibility are protected by theFirst Amendment of the Constitution, and that the way Carr pressured private companies against working with NewsGuard raises First Amendment concerns. NewsGuard also replied that there were actually more conservative outlets it rated as credible than liberal ones.[27]
The Washington Post described NewsGuard's rating criteria asnonpartisan, and wrote that while fighting disinformation was stillbipartisan when NewsGuard launched in 2018, disinformation watchdogs have since become a target of theRepublican Party.[27]
In March 2025, theU.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed adefamation lawsuit against NewsGuard by the Consortium for Independent Journalism (CIJ), the owner of the websiteConsortium News. The ruling was that the CIJ did not make a sufficient showing that NewsGuard acted withactual malice in assessing the credibility of its journalism.[37]
