Republicans in the House Education Committee sent letters to misinformation rating tool NewsGuard and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), demanding answers about their partnership to protect American children from “misinformation”.
The partnership between AFT and NewsGuard was announced earlier this year through a press release that said “the AFT’s 1.7 million members, tens of millions of kids they teach, and their families, can now receive free, real-time ‘traffic light’ news ratings and detailed ‘Nutrition Label’ reviews, via a licensed copy of NewsGuard’s browser extension, whenever they search the web for news and information”.
NewsGuard claims to be a tool that helps people fight online “misinformation” through a browser extension that gives “trust ratings”. However, conservatives feel the tool is biased against some outlets.
The letter, signed by House Education Committee ranking member Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Reps. Jim Banks (R-IN) and Burgess Owens (R-UT), says: “AFT and NewsGuard have a history of demonstrating left-wing bias” and called the partnership “troubling”, singling out the tool for ranking “several Chinese st...