A group of prominent billionaires, including George Soros, have backed “Good Information Inc.” with a stated goal of stamping out alleged “disinformation” and funding certain local news outlets that promote “good information.”
The organisation, which is to be led by former US Democrat Party strategist Tara McGowan, says its aim is to “invest in solutions that counter disinformation and increase the flow of good information online,” which they say will “strengthen democracy.”
The group cites a variety of “dangerous, real world consequences” of misinformation spread online, one of which is the fact that, according to Forbes, “185 million Americans don’t trust traditional media,” which Good Information views as a serious problem.
Fewer Americans Than Ever Before Trust The Mainstream Media https://t.co/ggneaNJNn0
— Forbes (@Forbes) February 22, 2021
Billionaire investors include the Open Societies Foundation’s George Soros, and Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn.
As its first investment, Good Information has acquired Courier Newsroom, which in turn owns eight local news outlets across the US, and the group has many more investments planned in the future.
Notably, on its website, under the tab labelled “misinformation,” a photo of US political commentator Tucker Carlson is displayed. Similarly, under “disinformation,” former Trump campaign manager Steve Bannon can be seen.
The group claims there is an “urgent need for regulation of social media platforms” and controls on the way that information is spread online.
So-called “disinformation” has become a big topic of debate in recent years among tech companies and politicians.
Notably, Gript did a recent report demonstrating that the HSE spent the Covid-19 pandemic reporting online material as allegedly dangerous “misinformation” which, by any reasonable standard, did not constitute misinformation, harmful or otherwise, and often included simple political speech or subjective statements of personal opinion.
The link to that report can be found below.
The HSE has said that, since February, they have reported over 1,300 social media posts for misinformation. Gript can reveal that the HSE has gone far beyond simply reporting misinformation.https://t.co/ohIstQNwvc
— gript (@griptmedia) October 4, 2021