NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: NewsGaurd, a media transparency tool founded by CEOs Steve Brill and L Gordon Crovitz in 2018, has come under the radar after being embroiled in the ongoing battle between Elon Musk and Jimmy Wales.
The Wikipedia founder and the X (Twitter) CEO have been at war since October 18 when Wales slammed Musk's running of the micro-blogging social media platform.
“Fast moving claims and counterclaims, and @elonmusk has removed all the core features that made it even remotely possible to tell real journalists from fakes,” he tweeted.
Under Wales’ post, one user attacked his non-profit platform and wrote, “Wikipedia has too. Oh, what will we do without knowing whether someone calls themselves a journalist?”
To which, the entrepreneur replied, “Wikipedians are not journalists. And it isn't about whether someone "calls themself" a journalist. It's that institutional affiliation being faked (as it was tonight) is a bad thing for knowledge and understanding.”
The heated argument also attracted the attention of Mike Benz, Executive Director of the Foundation For Freedom Online (FFFO), who called out NewsGuard, a media company that Wales advises.
“Elon, for your peripheral vision, Jimmy Wales advises NewsGuard, which is knee deep in a plot to get gov’t to bankrupt alternative news,” Benz tweeted, adding, “NewsGuard worked w/ EU on new disinformation code. Its biz model has “disinformation compliance” services w/ censorship laws it promotes.”
Benz’s post came just one day after New Guard published a report that said much of the top misinformation on X about the Israel-Hamas war comes from verified accounts.
Musk shared the post and wrote, “This is crazy!”
Popular independent journalist and YouTuber Tim Pool also commented on Benz's tweet, sharing his personal experience with the contentious rating organization.
“They claimed that reporting on Trump’s statements was irresponsible because we should be fact-checking him instead and Trump was wrong,” he wrote.
After reading the post, the Tesla CEO called Newsguard a "scam", stating it “should be disbanded immediately.”
“Disband Newsguard! Anything with a name that sounds like it came out of an Orwell novel should never be trusted,” he said in a follow-up tweet.
Internet reacts to Elon Musk calling to disband Newsguard
Musk’s calls to disband Newsguard have garnered immense social media attention, with users slamming the media transparency tool.
“Truthometer: Whatever Newsguard sanctions, the opposite is the truth!” one user said.
“NewsGuard came after me and my little website and have caused all sorts of financial drama,” a second user asserted.
“Suggestive name - they literally guard the news from truth!” another user wrote, while another said, “Holy cow, major smoking gun! They are incredibly nefarious, they must be stopped!”
“Newsguard was constantly trying to disparage Odysee by asking for comments in relation to nonsensical items. In the end we just ignored them as noone uses their plugin,” one user fumed.
“News gaurd.... Gaurding others for money...?” another user wrote. “NewsGuard didn't Doing Good job,” one more said.
Elon Musk offers to donate $1 billion to Wikipedia
Recently, Musk responded to Wikipedia's donation appeal for the year by saying, “Have you ever wondered why the Wikimedia Foundation wants so much money?”
“It certainly isn’t needed to operate Wikipedia. You can literally fit a copy of the entire text on your phone! So, what’s the money for? Inquiring minds want to know,” he continued.
Musk’s post received a "community note" that corrected him, noting that in 2022, Wikimedia had $154 million in revenue but $145 million in expenses.
On the same day, the entrepreneur offered to donate $1 billion to Wikipedia but on one condition.
"I will give them a billion dollars if they change their name to D**kipedia," Musk posted on X on Sunday, October 22.
