Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott declined to answer repeated questions from the Daily Caller News Foundation on whether he believes it is appropriate for taxpayer funds to support a Texas university’s project that worked to censor conservatives.
The University of Texas at Austin houses the Global Disinformation Lab, established in 2020 to research a “broad spectrum of information, misinformation, and disinformation via digital media.” The lab recently partnered with the Global Disinformation Index (GDI), which works to blacklist conservative news sites from ad exchanges, according to documents obtained by the Washington Examiner, for a research report released in December 2022.
Researchers from the UT Austin lab analyzed 69 news websites between June and October, finding conservative websites — including the New York Post, Reason, RealClearPolitics, The Daily Wire, The Blaze, OANN, The American Conservative, The Federalist, Newsmax and The American Spectator — most at risk for disinformation, according to the review. Meanwhile, liberal-leaning websites like The Washington Post, BuzzFeed News and The New York Times were rated “low” risk.