NewsGuard sells 'misinformation' detection tool to Microsoft, other private firms after receiving taxpayer-funded grant

NewsGuard, a for-profit company that provides news websites with "reliability ratings," is selling its "Misinformation Fingerprints" tool to Microsoft and other private companies after it was awarded a grant from the federal government to develop the technology.

The company developed its rating system to rank various media outlets based on nine allegedly "apolitical criteria," providing a score of zero to 100. NewsGuard's website states that it aims to help readers "counter misinformation" using its "transparent tools."

Critics have accused the company of attempting to censor and undermine the credibility of conservative-leaning news outlets while masquerading as a so-called independent fact-checker.

According to the Federalist, NewsGuard previously received $750,000 in taxpayer funding in the form of a federal grant through the Small Business Innovation and Research program to help with the development of its Misinformation Fingerprints technology. The tool is "the most comprehensive dataset of provably false narratives online," the company's website states.

"NewsGuard's global team of misinformation analysts maintains the internet's most complete, machine-readable catalog of top false claims circulating online," it adds. The company notes that the tool can be used to "search for content containing mis- and disinformation," "understand mis- and disinformation risks," "help government agencies and intelligence teams evaluate real-time disinformation narratives," and "keep abreast of the evolving landscape of brand-related misinformation that could harm client reputation."

It is unclear how the company determines whether the content contains disinformation.

NewsGuard explains that the "misinformation" tool is "different from fact-checking" because it generates machine-readable formats that can be "ingested by large language models." The tool also assesses the "risk of harm" level of the so-called "false claim" while providing information about how the information is spreading online.

The tool is now being sold to a number of private companies, the Federalist reported. Microsoft purchased the Misinformation Fingerprints "to train Bing Chat."

"Microsoft trusts the fingerprints as ethically reported, responsible, and unbiased data to train Bing Chat's large-language models (LLMs) to provide accurate responses to prompts on topics in the news and reduce their propensity to spread false claims," NewsGuard stated.

Social media app Ethos Network is using the tool to allow "users to verify the content of their posts before publishing them." Giphy has integrated the tool into its online search engine "to quickly identify and address content that risks spreading misinformation through its platform."

In 2020, the company won a Pentagon and Department of State contest for "detecting COVID-19 misinformation and disinformation."

In a statement to the New York Post, NewsGuard stated, "Our ratings are based on apolitical journalistic criteria, and we publish them transparently and publicly."

"For example, this is why the New York Post and FoxNews.com get a higher rating than MSNBC.com," NewsGuard continued. "We also contact publishers being rated to provide a chance for them to comment or rectify any issues we've raised. And our ratings are designed to equip users with added context about source reliability – without blocking any access to content."

NewsGuard's general manager, Matt Skibinski, confirmed to the Post that its Misinformation Fingerprints tool had been sold to private companies.

"Like most businesses, we don't comment on the specifics of our agreements with our licensees," Skibinski said.

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