Federal regulators on Thursday launched a probe into leftist “watchdog” Media Matters over reports that it illegally coordinated advertiser boycotts against Elon Musk&#8217;s X platform.
Media Matters for America, a non-profit <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/leaked-media-matters-donor-list-reveal-it-is-funded-by-democrat-mega-donors?author=Spencer+Lindquist&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Leaked+Media+Matters+Donor+List+Reveal+It+Is+Funded+By+Democrat+Mega+Donors">funded</a> by various leftist institutions and billionaires, <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/soros-donates-1-million-to-media-matters/">including</a> George Soros, has had the mission to deplatform and drive advertisers away from conservative voices since it was founded in 2004.
The Federal Trade Commission demanded documents regarding Media Matters&#8217; communications with similar “watchdogs” dedicated to labeling conservative content as hate speech and misinformation.
FTC Chairman Andrew Ferguson, appointed by President Donald Trump, signaled potential action in December, stating the agency &#8220;must prosecute any unlawful collusion between online platforms, and confront advertiser boycotts which threaten competition,&#8221; Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/ftc-probes-media-matters-over-musks-x-boycott-claims-document-shows-2025-05-22/">reported</a>.
Musk’s X sued Media Matters in 2023 after the liberal group published an article <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/elon-musk-to-file-thermonuclear-suit-against-media-matters-over-contrived-story-on-x?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Elon+Musk+To+File+%E2%80%98Thermonuclear%E2%80%99+Suit+Against+Media+Matters+Over+%E2%80%98Contrived%E2%80%99+Story+On+X">claiming</a> that X was placing ads for major corporations such as Apple, Disney, and Comcast alongside Nazi-related content.
A press release from Musk at the time said that the Media Matters story “completely misrepresented the real user experience on X, in another attempt to undermine freedom of speech and mislead advertisers.”
Musk accused the group of creating a “contrived” experience by using an alternate account to curate what posts appeared on the timeline.
In fact, according to Musk, X logs indicated that of the 5.5 billion ad impressions the day Media Matters pulled its research from, less than 50 were served alongside the content highlighted by Media Matters.
“Despite our clear and consistent position, X has seen a number of attacks from activist groups like Media Matters and legacy media outlets who seek to undermine freedom of expression on our platform because they perceive it as a threat to their ideological narrative and those of their financial supporters,” Musk’s release said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The split second court opens on Monday, X Corp will be filing a thermonuclear lawsuit against Media Matters and ALL those who colluded in this fraudulent attack on our company <a href="https://t.co/55vl7PspaQ">pic.twitter.com/55vl7PspaQ</a>
— Kekius Maximus (@elonmusk) <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1725771191644758037?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 18, 2023</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Attorneys representing X <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/media/ftc-launches-probe-far-left-group-media-matters-over-allegations-advertiser-collusion-against-musks-x">described</a> the report as &#8220;intentionally deceptive&#8221; as a means to cause the company financial harm.
Media Matters has denied these allegations and countersued X.
In a similar case, X sued the World Federation of Advertisers and several other brands for participating in an illegal conspiracy to curtail ad spending on X, the lawsuit states, per the New York Post.
The plaintiffs denied Musk’s accusations, arguing that each individual brand had concerns with X’s policies that led to their suspension of advertising.
The FTC&#8217;s demand represents a significant escalation in the case of Media Matters, shifting the dispute from civil litigation to potential government enforcement action.
Musk, a major contributor to Trump&#8217;s 2024 campaign and head of Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency initiative, has seen advertising on X decline since his 2022 acquisition, with Apple and IBM immediately pausing all ads on X following the 2023 Media Matters <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/twitter/musk-endorses-antisemitic-conspiracy-theory-x-has-been-placing-ads-apple-bravo-ibm-oracle">article</a>.
However, research firm Emarketer projects spending will increase in 2025, per Reuters.
Since taking over Twitter in 2022, Musk has made sweeping changes to content moderation policies, reinstated previously banned accounts, and introduced a paid verification system. The billionaire has frequently criticized what he characterizes as a &#8220;woke mind virus&#8221; affecting media and technology companies.

TOPSHOT-US-POLITICS-TRUMP-CABINET

Feds Probe Media Matters Over Plot To Defund Musk’s X, Silence Dissenting Voices

Big Tech

Censorship

Elon Musk

Free Speech

Media Matters For America

Trump Administration

Twitter

U.S.

A Christian organization on Wednesday filed a lawsuit alleging OpenAI discriminated against it on religious grounds.
The suit, filed by the group Holy Sexuality, accuses the California-based tech company of denying its application for a nonprofit discount because of its Christian beliefs. Represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, Holy Sexuality says that OpenAI’s policies violate California law, which prevents businesses from treating customers differently based on their religion. 
“This is a lawsuit that is purely focused on corporate discrimination against a nonprofit because of its religious character,&#8221; Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Vice President of Strategic Initiatives Ryan Bangert told The Daily Wire. &#8220;The idea that corporations would discriminate against their customers solely because of their customers’ religious faith is really troubling, and in this case, it violates a California state law.”
Holy Sexuality is a Christian organization that promotes biblical views on marriage and sexuality. Its founder, Dr. Christopher Yuan, says that he applied for the 20% ChatGPT discount offered by OpenAI to nonprofits, but was told his organization didn&#8217;t qualify because it was religious.
“Our nation was founded on the principle of the free exercise of religion—a cornerstone of our democracy,” Yuan said. “Yet some corporations, emboldened by intersectional ideology and anti-Christian sentiment, choose to unlawfully discriminate based solely on religion. This must stop.&#8221;
Goodstack — a software company that works with OpenAI to verify groups&#8217; nonprofit status — is named alongside OpenAI. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, says that the two tech companies violated California&#8217;s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which says that businesses treat all customers equally regardless of their religious beliefs. 
<a href="https://get.dailywire.com/subscribe/plus/?utm_medium=website&amp;utm_source=editorial&amp;utm_campaign=memorial&amp;utm_content=editorialmemorialday" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Memorial Day Sale – Get 40% Off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships</a>
On its website, OpenAI notes that religious organizations do not qualify for its nonprofit discount, though it doesn&#8217;t explain why.
&#8220;Nonprofit discounts are available to eligible nonprofits based anywhere in the world. At this time, academic, medical, religious, or governmental institutions are not eligible for OpenAI for Nonprofits,&#8221; OpenAI <a href="https://help.openai.com/en/articles/9359041-openai-for-nonprofits" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a>.
Bangert says that this policy is a &#8220;brazen&#8221; example of religious discrimination.
“This categorical denial, OpenAI’s published policy, and Goodstack’s enforcement of that policy are invidious religious discrimination,” the suit says. “People of faith aren’t second-class citizens in California, and tech companies cannot provide lesser services to customers simply because they are religious.”
The suit asks a judge to declare that the tech companies violated the Unruh Civil Rights Act, that OpenAI&#8217;s denial of a religious organization&#8217;s nonprofit status violates California law, and to issue an injunction blocking OpenAI from enforcing its policy toward religious organizations.
Holy Sexuality won a similar victory last month after it challenged software company Asana over a policy it had in place denying discounts to religious organizations. Asana agreed to offer Holy Sexuality the same 50% discount it gives to other nonprofits after a lawsuit from the Alliance Defending Freedom was filed.

TOPSHOT-US-TECHNOLOGY-AI-MICROSOFT-COMPUTERS

EXCLUSIVE: Christian Group Accuses OpenAI Of ‘Brazen’ Religious Discrimination

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

California

Christianity

Discrimination

Religious Liberty

Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed a bill into law on Friday to limit the social media use of minors under the age of 16 to one hour per day.
The Consumer Data Protection Act, supported by both Republican and Democrat state lawmakers, will require social media platforms, like Facebook and Instagram, to limit minors&#8217; time on such platforms.
Platforms will use &#8220;neutral age screen mechanisms&#8221; to determine the age of users and then limit their screen-time accordingly, Wavy.com <a href="https://www.wavy.com/news/politics/virginia-politics/is-time-up-for-youth-on-tiktok-gov-youngkin-seems-to-think-so/?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Parents, per the law, will be required to give &#8220;verifiable&#8221; consent if they want their child&#8217;s time on such apps increased or decreased.
The Consumer Data Protection Act will take effect next year, on January 1, 2026.
Youngkin has long voiced his concerns about children&#8217;s exposure to social media. In November, for example, the governor <a href="https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/news-releases/2024/november/name-1036768-en.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">signed</a> an executive order addressing the &#8220;youth mental health crisis driven by the effects of unrestricted cell phone use and addictive social media platforms.&#8221;
“While social media and the internet have brought many positives to our society, there is a growing consensus that social media is having severe — severe and persistent — negative impacts on our kids,” the governor <a href="https://www.wavy.com/news/politics/virginia-politics/is-time-up-for-youth-on-tiktok-gov-youngkin-seems-to-think-so/?utm_source=chatgpt.com" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> back in 2023.
“Children spend on average nearly five hours daily on social media; recent studies have suggested that children who spend more than a few hours per day on social media have double the risk of poor mental health,” Youngkin&#8217;s website said at the time. “Through budget proposals, legislation and executive action the youth mental health strategy will address critical components and harmful aspects of social media on our youth.”
Notably, Youngkin actually wanted the Consumer Data Protection Act to go further, restricting social media use daily to one hour for all those under 18 years old. The bill, though, landed at age 16.
The issues with social media have also been recognized by the federal government. In 2023, Biden-era U.S. <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/surgeon-general" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Surgeon General</a> Vivek Murthy issued an <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/health" target="_blank" rel="noopener">advisory</a> warning that <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/social-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener">social media</a> use among minors can severely damage <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/mental-health" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mental health</a>.
“The most common question parents ask me is, ‘is social media safe for my kids.’ The answer is that we don’t have enough evidence to say it’s safe, and in fact, there is growing evidence that social media use is associated with harm to young people’s mental health,” Murthy said.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/u-s-surgeon-general-issues-advisory-about-kids-use-of-social-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener">U.S. Surgeon General Issues Advisory About Kids’ Use Of Social Media</a>

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin

GOP Gov Signs Law That Would Set Daily Time Limit For Kids On Social Media

Glenn Youngkin

Mental Health

Politics

Social Media

Virginia

A federal judge in Virginia ruled on Thursday that Google illegally monopolized two advertising markets, paving the way for prosecutors to push for the breakup of Google&#8217;s advertising products, Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/technology/us-judge-finds-google-holds-illegal-online-ad-tech-monopolies-2025-04-17/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
According to the ruling from U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, Google broke the law by monopolizing the markets for publisher ad servers and ad exchanges. Brinkema wrote in a 115-page opinion that Google &#8220;engaged in a series of anticompetitive acts to acquire and maintain monopoly power in the publisher ad server and ad exchange markets for open-web display advertising,&#8221; Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-04-17/google-partially-loses-us-advertising-tech-antitrust-case?srnd=homepage-americas" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
&#8220;For over a decade, Google has tied its publisher ad server and ad exchange together through contractual policies and technological integration, which enabled the company to establish and protect its monopoly power in these two markets,&#8221; the judge added.
Google also pushed &#8220;anticompetitive policies on its customers&#8221; and &#8220;harmed Google’s publisher customers, the competitive process, and, ultimately, consumers of information on the open web,&#8221; according to Brinkema.
Google&#8217;s lawyers pushed back, arguing that the case brought against the company focused on its past practices when it was seeking to connect tools to competitors&#8217; products. The tech giant&#8217;s defense also said that prosecutors ignored some of Google&#8217;s large competitors, such as Amazon and Comcast, when digital ad spending shifted to streaming services and apps, Reuters reported.
The ruling against Google in Virginia comes as the tech giant faces a separate antitrust case, with the Department of Justice looking to force the company to sell its Chrome browser, which processes 90% of internet searches in the United States. The DOJ argues that &#8220;Google&#8217;s unlawful behavior has deprived rivals not only of critical distribution channels but also distribution partners who could otherwise enable entry into these markets by competitors in new and innovative ways.&#8221;
Last year, a federal judge <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/federal-judge-rules-google-has-illegal-monopoly-over-search-engines?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Federal+Judge+Rules+Google+Has+Illegal+Monopoly+Over+Search+Engines" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sided</a> with the DOJ and agreed that Google has a monopoly over search engines. A trial to decide a remedy for Google&#8217;s search engine monopoly is <a href="https://www.courthousenews.com/google-argues-doj-internet-search-monopoly-remedies-will-harm-consumers/#:~:text=The%20brief%20previews%20how%20the,open%20internet%20search%20competitive%20again.">set to begin</a> on Monday in Washington.
Google has also been accused of censoring Right-leaning news and favoring legacy media outlets in its search function. Republican lawmakers <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lawmakers-expand-probe-into-google-meta-over-alleged-censorship-of-trump-assassination-attempt-info?author=Leif+Le+Mahieu&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Lawmakers+Expand+Probe+Into+Google%2C+Meta+Over+Alleged+Censorship+Of+Trump+Assassination+Attempt+Info" target="_blank" rel="noopener">investigated</a> Google last year after its search recommendations appeared to remove mentions of the assassination attempt on then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Google claimed that the assassination attempt search recommendations were omitted because of a safety protocol.

Google

Google Illegally Monopolized Advertising Markets, Federal Judge Rules

Antitrust

Business

Courts

Judge

The Trump administration released new guidance late Friday night on its tariff on China, exempting electronic devices such as smartphones and laptops.
The <a href="https://content.govdelivery.com/bulletins/gd/USDHSCBP-3db9e55?wgt_ref=USDHSCBP_WIDGET_2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">guidance</a>, posted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which oversees collecting taxes on imports, could relieve some anxiety among consumers and tech giants like Apple and Microsoft, which manufacture many of their products in China, The Wall Street Journal <a href="https://www.wsj.com/tech/trump-exempts-smartphones-other-electronics-from-chinese-tariffs-dd8eb31f" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Around 20 electronic products — which also include memory cards and machines used to make flatscreens and tablets — will now be exempted from Trump&#8217;s massive &#8220;reciprocal&#8221; tariff on China. The exemption comes after the president increased the tariff on China in recent days in response to China&#8217;s retaliatory tariff on U.S. goods.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and Homeland Security adviser, <a href="https://x.com/StephenM/status/1911092862076289243" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> on X, &#8220;These products are subject to the tariff under the original IEEPA [International Emergency Economic Powers Act] on China of 20 percent.&#8221; The IEEPA tariff was the first one Trump <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/fact-sheets/2025/02/fact-sheet-president-donald-j-trump-imposes-tariffs-on-imports-from-canada-mexico-and-china/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">imposed</a> on China after taking office in January. The tariff was levied on China, along with Canada and Mexico, in an attempt to &#8220;hold&#8221; the countries &#8220;to their promises of halting illegal immigration and stopping poisonous fentanyl and other drugs from flowing into our country.&#8221;
The Trump administration has suggested that the tariff on China will encourage companies, including Big Tech companies, to manufacture their products on U.S. soil, arguing that the move would be better for the economy and national security.
“President Trump has made it clear America cannot rely on China to manufacture critical technologies such as semiconductors, chips, smartphones, and laptops,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Saturday, according to the Wall Street Journal. She added, “Companies are hustling to onshore their manufacturing in the United States as soon as possible.”
Last week, Trump announced a &#8220;90-day pause&#8221; on tariffs for most countries, citing their willingness to negotiate. The tariff &#8220;pause&#8221; didn&#8217;t end tariffs on foreign nations, but instead dropped them to a baseline 10% tariff rate, except for products from China, which he raised to 125%. With the IEEPA tariff factored in, the tariff on Chinese goods stands at 145%.
China <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-hits-back-with-125-tariffs-accuses-u-s-of-bullying-and-coercion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responded</a> to Trump&#8217;s move by increasing the tariff on U.S. imports to 125%, a move that will mostly affect American soybeans, pharmaceutical drugs, and airplanes. Trump is accusing China of &#8220;ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries,&#8221; while China <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/china-doubles-down-on-fighting-trade-war-to-the-end-says-it-will-not-respond-to-threats" target="_blank" rel="noopener">says</a> it will not respond to &#8220;pressure, threats, and blackmail.&#8221;
Trump remains hopeful that China will come to the negotiating table to work out a new trade deal, but so far, the Chinese government has shown no signs of backing down from the trade war.
“A deal is going to be made with China,” the president said earlier this week. “A deal is going to be made with every one of them [countries], and there will be fair deals. I just want fair.”

iPhone

Trump Exempts Smartphones, Other Electronics From Additional Tariff On China

Apple

China

Donald Trump

Microsoft

Smartphones

Tariffs

President Trump on Friday signed an executive order extending the deadline for TikTok&#8217;s Chinese parent company to sell its United States operations for a second time, saying that the acquisition “requires more work to ensure all necessary approvals are signed.”
“We do not want TikTok to ‘go dark.’ We look forward to working with TikTok and China to close the Deal. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114280893859636366">said</a> on Truth Social.
Had Trump not granted an extension to ByteDance, the Chinese-owned parent company of TikTok would have been required to carry out a “qualified divesture” of its United States business per a law signed by former President Joe Biden in April 2024, with internet service providers and app stores prohibited from hosting the platform.
The app, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2024/09/24/in-an-election-year-more-americans-are-using-tiktok-as-a-news-source/">used</a> by over 170 million Americans, has faced scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle amid growing concerns about China&#8217;s technological influence and data collection capabilities.
Biden’s law went into effect on January 19, with Apple and Google removing TikTok from their respective app stores until Trump extended the deadline by 75 days on January 20 when he took office.
According to CNBC, several major American tech companies have <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/04/04/trumps-extends-tiktok-second-time.html">expressed interest</a> in acquiring TikTok&#8217;s United States operations, including Oracle, AppLovin, and a consortium of private capital firms like Andreessen Horowitz and Blackstone. Amazon has also reportedly made a last-second bid to purchase the social media platform.
Despite interest from American companies, any deal still requires approval from the Chinese Communist Party, adding complexity to negotiations.
The announcement came just days after Trump announced his “Liberation Day” tariffs, imposing a 34% tariff rate on China, which, combined with existing tariffs, creates a total rate of 54% on all imports from one of America’s largest trading partners.
Trump appears wary of the impact tariffs might have on the CCP’s willingness to approve a TikTok deal, insisting that China continue to negotiate in “good faith” despite the hefty tariffs.
“We hope to continue working in Good Faith with China, who I understand are not very happy about our Reciprocal Tariffs (Necessary for Fair and Balanced Trade between China and the U.S.A.!).”
The president has also indicated he might consider reducing China&#8217;s tariffs to facilitate a TikTok deal.
“Maybe I’ll give [China] a little reduction in tariffs or something to get it done,” Trump <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/26/trump-says-he-may-reduce-china-tariffs-to-help-close-a-tiktok-deal.html">said</a> in late March, “TikTok is big, but every point in tariffs is worth more than TikTok.”

TikTok Logo With US Flag

Trump Extends TikTok Sale Deadline By 75 Days As Acquisition Talks Continue

Foreign Policy

Global Politics

Technology

TikTok

The European Union is considering levying a $1 billion fine against Elon Musk&#8217;s X, alleging that the social media company has violated its law against disinformation and illicit content, The New York Times <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/technology/eu-penalties-x-elon-musk.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>.
Along with the hefty fine, the E.U. would also demand that X make changes to its product, according to the Times, which cited &#8220;four people with knowledge of the plans.&#8221; If the E.U. moves forward, it would be the first fine imposed by the body using its Digital Services Act (DSA). The <a href="https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/priorities-2019-2024/europe-fit-digital-age/digital-services-act_en#:~:text=Digital%20Services%20Act%20(DSA)%20overview,and%20open%20online%20platform%20environment." target="_blank" rel="noopener">DSA</a> &#8220;regulates online intermediaries and platforms &#8230; to prevent illegal and harmful activities online and the spread of disinformation.&#8221;
The social media company formerly known as Twitter, which Musk said he took over to restore free speech, <a href="https://x.com/GlobalAffairs/status/1907963263419297893" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responded</a> to the potential enforcement of the E.U.&#8217;s social media law, saying the move would be &#8220;an unprecedented act of political censorship and an attack on free speech.&#8221;
&#8220;X has gone above and beyond to comply with the EU’s Digital Services Act, and we will use every option at our disposal to defend our business, keep our users safe, and protect freedom of speech in Europe,&#8221; the company added.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino <a href="https://x.com/lindayaX/status/1907980612947841444" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added</a>, &#8220;This would be an egregious example of regulatory overreach. X continues to fight the attempts to stifle free speech taking place around the world, whether on our platform or off. We’re committed to protect this fundamental right for our users.&#8221;
Last July, the E.U. <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_3761" target="_blank" rel="noopener">concluded</a> that X violated the DSA &#8220;in areas linked to dark patterns, advertising transparency and data access for researchers.&#8221; In its report, the E.U. claimed that X verifies accounts and hands out &#8220;Blue checkmarks&#8221; in a way that &#8220;deceives users.&#8221;
&#8220;Since anyone can subscribe to obtain such a &#8216;verified&#8217; status, it negatively affects users&#8217; ability to make free and informed decisions about the authenticity of the accounts and the content they interact with,&#8221; the E.U. said.
The E.U. also accused X of failing to provide adequate transparency in advertising and failing to hand over its public data to researchers &#8220;in line with the conditions set out in the DSA.&#8221;
E.U. regulators reportedly hit the brakes on the investigation into X to discuss potential ramifications for going after a company controlled by one of President Donald Trump&#8217;s closest advisers and top donor. The E.U. has also been in the crosshairs of the Trump administration as Vice President JD Vance called out the bloc during a speech in February, slamming the E.U. for its digital censorship.
The Times reported that Musk&#8217;s social media company could still settle the dispute with the E.U., but that would likely require X to make changes to satisfy the governing body. If X chooses to fight the fine, it&#8217;s unclear how the legal process would play out between the American social media company and the E.U. The bloc is also going after U.S. tech companies Meta and Apple for allegedly violating the DSA.

E.U. Reportedly Considering Massive Fine For Elon Musk’s X Over ‘Disinformation’

Europe

European Union

World

A male employee of Google who stated he served in such high-capacity jobs as “Global Business Leader” and “Head of Industry-Media Platforms,” has sued the company, alleging he and other male employees were discriminated against because they were men.
The <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.639423/gov.uscourts.nysd.639423.1.0.pdf">suit</a> from former employee Marco Meier accuses Marta Martinez, the Managing Director of Sales for Google, of making statements such as, “The women on my team have better leadership skills and are better prepared,” and “men are too aggressive and competitive.” The suit alleges that Meier and all the male leaders in Martinez’s department “endured a relentless campaign of hostile and disparate treatment, severe harassment, and discrimination based upon gender.”
“Indeed, over the course of a four-year period, Plaintiff witnessed the nefarious and systematic elimination of each male team leader reporting to Defendant Martinez, all of whom were exclusively replaced with female team leaders,” the suit states.
“Plaintiff and all male team leaders were continuously restricted from providing their insight during meetings, were issued lower performance reviews while female team leaders were provided with higher reviews without basis, were repeatedly denied large-scale influential projects while such projects were provided to lesser qualified female team leaders, and Plaintiffs and all male team leaders were continuously denied promotions &#8230; while female team leaders were rapidly promoted,” the suit claims.
Meier contended that he had submitted two detailed complaints of gender discrimination to Google, but no corrective action was taken or investigation conducted. Instead, he claims he was fired two months after his second complaint was closed after having worked at Google 12 and a half years.
“The accomplishments of Plaintiff were also without parallel which included closing the largest programmatic guaranteed deal in Respondent’s history with Apple,” the suit claims. “All female team leaders were promoted in less that two to three years. In stark contrast, Plaintiff was finally promoted from Level 6 to Level 7 after five and one-half years while Respondent Martinez refused to promote any other male team leaders.”
“Specifically, in or around November 2022, Defendant Google promoted fourteen employees in the Americas to Director positions. However, 13 of the promotions were provided to female employees.”

Google Chrome Requests A New Emergency Security Update

Former High-Level Google Employee Sues, Claims Discrimination Against Men

Lawsuit

A big tech company that deplatformed conservative groups agreed to turn over documents related to that decision just days after Senator Ted Cruz announced plans to obtain them through subpoena, the Texas Republican told The Daily Wire. 
Cruz said Friday that Bonterra, a massive online service provider, will comply with his requests for information related to cancelled contracts with the Independent Women’s Forum and the Pennsylvania Family Institute. Bonterra, which helps nonprofits fundraise and manage operations, previously told Cruz it ended its contract with Independent Women&#8217;s Forum because it was anti-LGBT.
On Monday, Cruz, who leads the Senate Commerce Committee, said he planned to subpoena Bonterra for internal documents and communications related to its treatment of conservative companies. In response, Bonterra committed to producing the documents by March 19, Cruz&#8217;s office told The Daily Wire. 
“Once I announced my intention to seek the Committee’s authorization for a subpoena, Bonterra quickly agreed to produce requested documents,” Cruz told The Daily Wire on Friday. “This is a victory for groups like the Independent Women’s Forum and the Pennsylvania Family Institute whose contracts were not renewed because of their beliefs.”
He added that the documents, internal communications, and communications with third parties “will help us better understand how tech companies weaponize contractual terms to deny service to conservatives.”
The desired documents include communications between Bonterra and any third parties that advised Bonterra on its “business ethics” provision or its anti-hate speech policy, a senior aide for the committee told The Daily Wire. The committee will also demand communications with third parties who flagged users for alleged violations, and documents that will help it identify accounts removed by Bonterra for hate speech.
Bonterra previously told Cruz that it ended its relationship with the Independent Women&#8217;s Forum because the organization, which opposes transgender ideology, “works to restrict the rights of the LGBTQ community. Bizarrely, it added that it does not focus on “positions of the organization” when making decisions about terms of service violations.
The Independent Women’s Forum is a conservative nonprofit that aims to “engage and inform women about how policy issues impact them and their loved ones.” It has emerged as one of the most prominent voices defending women’s sports from the invasion of transgender-identifying men.
Cruz said he would move “swiftly to compel” Bonterra if it failed “in any way to fulfill its obligation to the Committee.”

Pam Bondi Swears In Kash Patel As FBI Director

Big Tech Company That Deplatformed Conservative Group Will Comply With Cruz Investigation

Ted Cruz

Democrats thought they could shutter the Department of Government Efficiency before it even started, filing <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/unions-sue-doge-calling-it-unbalanced-for-excluding-opponents-of-efficiency" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawsuits</a> that said its anticipated structure as an outside advisory committee was illegal. But when Inauguration Day rolled around, the reality was, for them, much worse: DOGE would be an official entity with hundreds of paid staff, authorized to hire outsiders with little vetting, and able to engage in openly ideological activity.
And Democrats had only themselves to blame.
DOGE took over the U.S. Digital Service, a 300-person technology office President Barack Obama set up inside the Executive Office of the President in 2014 to fix his beleaguered HealthCare.gov. Bureaucrats had bungled the site, so USDS sought out Silicon Valley innovators, and was authorized to circumvent federal hiring procedures to get them. Hiring young people from the tech world and putting them together to work for Obama, unmoored from the stuffy rules of a typical government building, led to an environment of overt left-wing advocacy.
Obama designed it that way, making the USDS administrator, its top employee, a political appointee. When Donald Trump took over in 2017, he didn’t attempt to turn the tables. Instead, he turned the other cheek. He <a href="https://www.nextgov.com/people/2024/11/usds-looks-new-deputy-lead-trump-administration-approaches/401089/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reclassified</a> USDS’s top job as a career position, not a political one, signaling that he trusted the employees to simply carry out the unglamorous job of fixing government IT.
But USDS staff abused that trust, using it, incredibly, to run left-wing activism from inside Trump’s first White House. During his first term, it hired multiple people who had worked in the porn industry, one who’d worked in a gender studies department, and a transgender activist. USDS leadership subjected staff to memos lecturing them on “toxic masculinity” while devoting significant effort to DEI hiring, a Daily Wire review found.
Trump wasn’t rewarded for his attempt to give federal employees autonomy. Democrats have continued to claim that he was trying to “politicize” the federal workforce. And when Joe Biden won the presidency, he didn’t even make a pretense of maintaining the nonpartisan nature: He promptly changed the top role <a href="https://www.nextgov.com/people/2024/11/usds-looks-new-deputy-lead-trump-administration-approaches/401089/">back</a> to political appointment, and even granted his appointee <a href="https://fedscoop.com/watchdog-calls-on-white-house-to-rescind-usds-administrators-ethics-waivers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">waivers</a> exempting her from ethics rules.
<h1>USDS is a case study for why Trump’s second term is being approached with a more skeptical and hard-knuckled approach.</h1>
The irony is that Democrats had built a ticking time bomb. Then federal employees destroyed any pretense that, if left to their own devices, they would be “apolitical” instead of left-wing. Happening in over-the-top fashion right underneath Trump’s nose, it was an outrageous betrayal that no president would forgive or forget.
USDS is a case study in why Trump and his team are taking a more skeptical, hard-knuckled approach to the president&#8217;s second term. Trump learned that kindness would be exploited as weakness. Democrats and federal employees had set the table, and now Elon Musk is serving revenge that’s been chilling for four years.
***
A professional <a href="https://archive.is/moCX7" target="_blank" rel="noopener">bio</a> describes Clare Bayley as a &#8220;sex and technology expert&#8221; for whom &#8220;both technology and sexual media have been passions of hers since she hit puberty.&#8221; Bayley &#8220;founded and runs The Nectarine Project, a non-profit trying to make big tech more sex positive,&#8221; the bio notes.
Bayley worked for MIT’s Women’s &amp; Gender Studies Department, then for the hardcore pornography website Kink.com. She’d later work for “Lesbians Who Tech &amp; Allies :: Queer. Inclusive. Badass,” according to her LinkedIn. But the job she held in between was perhaps the oddest: Beginning in 2018, she worked for Donald Trump’s Executive Office of the President.
It wasn’t that the Trump administration hired her, per se. To the people at USDS, Trump wasn’t president at all. They made Bayley a high-level manager. In September 2019, she wrote a memo to staff from her eop.gov address:
<blockquote>“I was at a conference in Boston last week and the opening keynote was the most Machiavellian, toxic-masculinity-focused approach to the project mindset I&#8217;ve ever seen. Let&#8217;s talk about it. This is a chance for us to vent about some of the biases we&#8217;ve seen in our careers, especially those expressed as ‘career advice,’ and talk about what we can do in our own community to guard against/dig out similar things. Please note, white straight cis men are welcome at this meeting, but please spend most of your time actively listening.”</blockquote>
The email, and Bayley, were typical of USDS’s culture. Harlan Lieberman-Berg (“he/him”) came from the porn world, as the “founder of AdvertiSin, an online-advertising company bringing modern real-time bidding technology to the adult entertainment industry.” USDS hired him in 2017, and he worked there until 2020 as “advisor to several acquisition efforts with contract values totaling over $10 billion,” according to his LinkedIn.
<div id="attachment_872361" style="width: 1034px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-872361" class="size-large wp-image-872361" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/clare-bayley-woodhull-1024x356.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="356" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/clare-bayley-woodhull-1024x356.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/clare-bayley-woodhull-300x104.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/clare-bayley-woodhull-768x267.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/clare-bayley-woodhull-1536x534.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/clare-bayley-woodhull-2048x712.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" />Woodhull Freedom Foundation</div>
Amy Paris was hired by the Trump USDS in May 2020, making him one of the <a href="https://19thnews.org/2022/07/amy-paris-trans-woman-white-house-works-inclusivity/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">highest-ranking transgender-identifying </a>people in government. He used his position to push for airport screenings geared towards transgenders, and non-gendered passports.
<div id="attachment_872355" style="width: 709px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-872355" class="size-large wp-image-872355" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/amy-paris-699x576.jpg" alt="" width="699" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/amy-paris-699x576.jpg 699w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/amy-paris-300x247.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/amy-paris-768x633.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/amy-paris-1536x1265.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/amy-paris-2048x1687.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 699px) 100vw, 699px" />19th News</div>
Natalie Moore, a former Peace Corps member, worked at the Trump USDS through September 2018, before going on to NPR and the Biden for President campaign and Biden’s 2020 transition team. Then she came back to USDS, where she expanded food stamp uptake and “improved U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP), resulting in the highest refugee arrival numbers in the last three decades,” according to her LinkedIn, which says she remains a USDS employee to this day.
A former employee told The Daily Wire, on condition of anonymity, that USDS employees “actively would not help any tech or program that had to do with Trump&#8217;s immigration policies. They would stall, say we don’t have the resources. They&#8217;re smart and savvy and leverage their knowledge of federal operations to stall reforms. The worst ones are the ones smart enough to not expose themselves overtly.”
“When [the Trump administration] first came in they thought ‘it’s tech, they&#8217;ll do their jobs, how bad could it be?’ They have learned over the last years about how diabolically malicious they are,” the employee said.
***
The first Trump administration put Matt Cutts, a former Google engineer and Democratic National Committee donor, <a href="https://medium.com/the-u-s-digital-service/staying-with-the-u-s-digital-service-d465685c921f">in charge</a> of USDS. His deputy was Edward Hartwig, a former public defender who was originally hired by the Obama administration. Cutts did little to ensure that the office was advancing Trump’s policies, or at least not actively undermining them, according to the former staffer. Jared Kushner had announced a plan to use USDS as part of an “Office of American Innovation,” but no one heard much about the innovation office after that, and USDS pretty much behaved as if Trump had never been elected. When Cutts left in 2021, his departure note was signed &#8220;Matt Cutts (he/him).”
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-872347 size-large" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/matt-cutts-678x576.jpg" alt="" width="678" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/matt-cutts-678x576.jpg 678w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/matt-cutts-300x255.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/matt-cutts-768x653.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/matt-cutts.jpg 1486w" sizes="(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px" /></div>
During the Trump administration, significant effort was spent attempting to hire staff using DEI criteria. It had <a href="https://medium.com/the-u-s-digital-service/serving-on-the-u-s-digital-service-talent-team-edf3e9446b6a" target="_blank" rel="noopener">four recruiters</a> on staff, none of whom were white. In 2019, it <a href="https://usdigitalservice.medium.com/u-s-digital-service-x-afrotech-2019-%EF%B8%8F-ee68ecadb0d2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sponsored</a> a conference called AfroTech, aimed at hiring black web developers.
In 2018, a panel at a Lesbians Who Tech conference consisted <a href="https://lesbianswhotech.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/5th-Annual-Lesbians-Who-Tech-Allies-San-Francisco-Agenda-2018-__-Public-Version.pdf">solely</a> of USDS employees, including Director of Design Amanda Miklik, who <a href="https://www.kapprofessionals.org/kap_directory/15237/amanda-miklik-llc/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">moonlights</a> as a &#8220;Kink Aware Professional.&#8221; Miklik offers life coaching as a &#8220;kink-aware, queer, genderqueer person. I specialize in body liberation/body justice, anti-racism for white folks.&#8221;
Product Manager Kasia Chmielinski (&#8220;they/them&#8221;), who now &#8220;builds tools to mitigate bias in artificial intelligence,&#8221; was also on the panel. It was moderated by USDS Director of Strategy/Operations Julie Meloni, who <a href="https://www.slideshare.net/jcmeloni/everything-i-learned-about-a-diverse-workforce-in-tech-i-learnedin-the-government" target="_blank" rel="noopener">previously</a> worked at a &#8220;4-person queer women-owned &amp; operated multimedia company&#8221; and gravitated towards USDS not because it mirrored Silicon Valley, but because it didn’t, having more diversity.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-872351" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/lesbians-who-tech-1024x269.jpg" alt="" width="1024" height="269" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/lesbians-who-tech-1024x269.jpg 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/lesbians-who-tech-300x79.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/lesbians-who-tech-768x202.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/lesbians-who-tech-1536x403.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/02/lesbians-who-tech.jpg 1820w" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /> USDS is supposed to hire for limited two- or four-year terms. In practice, people worked in a high-level but unusually partisan environment, then used the contacts they made to embed in the permanent workforce across government agencies. Paris, for example, now works for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). <a href="https://meritalk.com/articles/dhs-names-dana-chisnell-to-head-new-cx-office/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dana Chisell</a> is in a high-level role at the Department of Homeland Security after her Biden USDS term. USDS alum <a href="https://fedscoop.com/bio/michael-boyce/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Michael Boyce</a>, whose career has focused on refugee programs, is the head of DHS&#8217;s AI Corps.
Others may have cashed in on those connections as government contractors. Former USDS deputy administrator Hartwig, porn entrepreneur Lieberman-Berg, and Kat Jurick (who worked for USDS throughout Trump&#8217;s first term) now comprise a contracting firm called Service Design Collective, which <a href="https://www.servicedesigncollective.com/contact/">bills itself</a> as a “woman owned small business” where “pronouns matter.”
USDS wrote a report saying that the database tracking organ donors <a href="https://thewellnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/143-USDS-Report-Modernizing-OPTN-Jan-2021_Redacted70.pdf">needed to be replaced</a>. <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/health-law-and-business/hhs-senate-probe-for-ethical-conflicts-in-organ-groups-hire" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ankit Mathur</a> worked at USDS from April 2022 until March 2024 when he took a job at the United Network for Organ Sharing, which manages the database. That same month, HHS awarded Service Design Collective a <a href="https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_75R60224P00007_7526_-NONE-_-NONE-">$1.4 million contract</a> to work on the Organ Procurement Transplant Network.
In a statement to The Daily Wire, the United Network for Organ Sharing said it was &#8220;following all applicable post-employment legal and ethical requirements for anyone previously employed by the federal government.&#8221; Service Design Collective did not respond to a request for comment.
Current and former USDS staff keep in touch via an email group. It’s taken for granted that they’re all Democrats who want to stop Trump. Paris seemed to believe his second inauguration meant end times were near. “The time to start backing up websites was yesterday,” he wrote.
Jordan Kasper, a Trump USDS alum now working for DHS, wrote that it would be “illegal for the administration to simply delete [code] en masse. Of course that wouldn’t necessarily stop them.”
USDS employees seem to have realized that Trump learned from his first experience with them and isn’t likely to tolerate insurrection.
Meloni wrote on LinkedIn last month that back in 2017, she and other employees wondered &#8220;how do we go on?&#8221;
&#8220;But this one is hitting much differently,&#8221; she wrote of what she called the “DOGE BS.”
&#8220;It&#8217;s pain.&#8221;
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/triggered-no-more-fed-tech-arm-deletes-inclusion-bot-page-after-musk-takeover">Related: ‘Triggered’ No More: Federal Tech Arm Deletes ‘Inclusion Bot’ After Musk Takeover</a>

USDS

A DOGE Origin Story: How Barack Obama Laid The Groundwork For Elon Musk

Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)

Joe Biden

In a major turnaround, &#8220;<a href="https://www.amazon.com/War-Children-Robby-Starbuck/dp/B0DTSGWVCH/ref=sr_1_1?crid=4J0R2B9F5WHE&amp;dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.a5LZAH2ip82WZpW1--t2iidf2MZQOMw_TXlbJuZEplNLuXyhvYy7URzTcWqv2LQ67x5RDWNdwtHXJeWEoKk8ZcnfpJ_potUdgON9EoK5NavU2UQbjEftGFnYNYb7LEI9m4vS5rLz-wVYq8wu3ejU8y7Nloi4FKrFedUrHpLRIRR7l_a6eiU_UqlXunrhD9J7_bHzHdaqvZpLGir0-l5m2bKafjhcm_fLoBWs59P6Ky0.e2pta6rm_XMQoiqF2T8OCaXBgtudSBWu-LGskYdFqIw&amp;dib_tag=se&amp;keywords=The+War+On+Children&amp;qid=1738613878&amp;s=instant-video&amp;sprefix=the+war+on+children%2Cinstant-video%2C134&amp;sr=1-1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The War on Children</a>,&#8221; a documentary exposing far-left activists&#8217; efforts to indoctrinate and sexualize children, is finally being platformed on Amazon&#8217;s Prime Video.
Robby Starbuck, activist and director of the film, announced on Monday that &#8220;The War on Children&#8221; is now available on Prime Video, following a year of effective censorship by Big Tech platforms.
&#8220;Huge news and a favor to ask so we wake up more people: One year ago today, every Big Tech company banned &#8216;The War On Children,'&#8221; Starbuck posted to X. &#8220;Amazon banned it because the Left feared it. Today, exactly 1 year since the release, [Prime Video] just unbanned our film.&#8221;
&#8220;If we can get it into the top films there, think of how many normal people will be woken up to the war that the Left has waged on our kids,&#8221; Starbuck continued. &#8220;Getting into the top movie recommendations would also have the added bonus of driving the Left insane. They’re already going to lose it that Amazon is carrying the film.&#8221;
The Daily Wire has reached out to Amazon about the sudden turnaround.
Starbuck asked his followers to support &#8220;The War on Children&#8221; and promised that any profits would be rolled &#8220;right into our next film, which is going to be incredible.&#8221;
A description of the film on Prime Video reads, &#8220;Far left activists will stop at nothing to indoctrinate them, sexualize them, guilt them and punish them until they submit to their woke religion. For too long the dots haven&#8217;t been connected to expose their battle plan. This film exposes EVERYTHING.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Huge news and a favor to ask so we wake up more people: One year ago today, every Big Tech co banned &#8220;The War On Children&#8221;.
Amazon banned it because the left feared it.
Today, exactly 1 year since the release, <a href="https://twitter.com/PrimeVideo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PrimeVideo</a> just unbanned our film. If we can get it into the top… <a href="https://t.co/zjNupYJ8wa">pic.twitter.com/zjNupYJ8wa</a>
— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) <a href="https://twitter.com/robbystarbuck/status/1886449838511816816?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
Notably, Big Tech CEOs, including Amazon&#8217;s Jeff Bezos, have warmed to President Donald Trump since his 2024 election win. Bezos <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-tech-ceos-meta-amazon-donate-millions-inauguration/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">donated</a> $1 million toward Trump&#8217;s inauguration and even attended the swearing-in.
A similar shift has occurred with Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, who famously <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c87x98q8y08o">dined</a> with Trump at Mar-a-Lago just days after the election. He, too, <a href="https://www.commoncause.org/articles/big-tech-is-donating-millions-to-trumps-inauguration/">donated</a> $1 million for Trump’s inauguration and attended the event. 
While Amazon is now platforming &#8220;The War on Children,&#8221; it&#8217;s also noteworthy that Zuckerberg has claimed to have turned a page on the days of censorship, insisting that he supports free speech. The Facebook founder recently said he’s replacing biased third-party fact checkers with a Community Notes-style system, and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/zuckerberg-says-meta-restoring-free-speech-will-get-rid-of-fact-checkers">posted</a> a video earlier this month emphasizing this commitment to free speech. 
 “We’ve reached a point where it&#8217;s just too many mistakes and too much censorship,&#8221; Zuckerberg said in a <a href="https://www.instagram.com/zuck/reel/DEhf2uTJUs0/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">video</a> posted online. &#8220;The recent elections also feel like a cultural tipping point toward once again prioritizing speech. So, we’re gonna get back to our roots and focus on reducing mistakes, simplifying our policies, and restoring free expression on our platforms.”

Kid with trans flag

Culture Shift: ‘The War On Children’ Doc Was Banned By Big Tech. Now Amazon Is Platforming It.

Amazon Prime

Robby Starbuck

Wikipedia, once heralded as the internet’s neutral hub for knowledge, has taken a hard turn to the Left. Initially constructed to be the digital public square where ideas, history, and current events were to be explained in a balanced fashion, the online encyclopedia has emerged as yet another battleground in the war against President Trump, his administration officials and conservatives writ large.
The latest report from the <a href="https://www.mrc.org/">Media Research Center’s</a> (MRC) <a href="https://mrcfreespeechamerica.org/">Free Speech America</a> division exposes a systematic blacklisting of right-leaning media outlets, further cementing the leftist control over online information. The bottom line: 84% of Left-leaning outlets have Wikipedia’s stamp of approval, while 0% of right-leaning outlets even get a wink from the tech giant.
The implications of this bias cannot be overstated as Wikipedia’s self-proclaimed &#8220;neutral point of view&#8221; (NPOV) policy is supposed to guarantee objectivity. Yet, in practice, the policy is being selectively applied to sideline conservative viewpoints.
Wikipedia’s cutting room floor includes influential right-leaning outlets such as The Daily Wire, Breitbart, Newsmax, One America News, The Daily Caller, and even the MRC. Meanwhile, Left-leaning publications such as Jacobin, Mother Jones, Pro-Publica, NPR, The Atlantic, and The Guardian are deemed “reliable,” despite their documented history of inaccurate reporting and radical ideology.
This imbalanced treatment is intentional and tactical. It is a deliberate effort to exclude right-of-center perspectives from the online discourse, with the obvious goal of disparaging, slandering and maligning anyone who opposes the radical Left agenda.
The evidence of this malicious treatment comes from Wikipedia itself. Its “Reliable Sources/Perennial Sources” page confesses its culpability like a guilt-torn defendant who blurts out in the courtroom, “I did it, I did it, I killed the victim!”
This page serves as Wikipedia’s gatekeeping tool that literally “blacklists” some of the most popular media on the right. Any outlet on Wikipedia’s naughty list is not allowed to help shape Wikipedia’s content.
This manipulation of information extends beyond just blacklisting certain sources — it actively distorts political narratives. Due to the systemic bias in Wikipedia’s sourcing policies, the pages on Trump’s appointees are overwhelmingly shaped by Left-leaning media, presenting a skewed, and often hostile, portrayal of these individuals. The same treatment is not applied to Democratic figures, whose pages benefit from friendlier coverage and selective omission of controversies.
The MRC report found that out of 44 media outlets classified as Left-leaning by AllSides, a staggering 84% are deemed reliable by Wikipedia. Meanwhile, virtually every prominent conservative outlet has been blacklisted or labeled unreliable.
The bias extends beyond media sources to broader political issues. The Hunter Biden laptop scandal is a glaring example. Initially dismissed by Left-wing outlets as “Russian disinformation,” the story was later verified by mainstream publications. Yet, Wikipedia’s coverage continues to reference the debunked narrative while downplaying the legitimacy of conservative outlets that reported the truth from the outset.
Similarly, the Wuhan lab leak theory — once ridiculed by Left-leaning media but now considered the most likely source of COVID-19—has not been accurately updated on Wikipedia. This selective curation of facts ensures that Wikipedia remains a tool for leftist narrative control rather than a genuine information repository.
One of the key figures responsible for this shift is Katherine Maher, who led Wikipedia&#8217;s parent company Wikimedia, from 2016 to 2021. Under her tenure, Wikipedia moved further into ideological bias, enforcing sourcing policies that favored leftist perspectives while suppressing conservative viewpoints. Maher’s public statements indicate an embrace of Left-wing activism, further solidifying Wikipedia’s transformation from a neutral information source to a partisan tool.
The consequences of this bias are severe. Wikipedia is one of the most visited websites in the world, and it is regularly produced by Google as one of its highest ranked search results. So, its content influences not just your average Joe but journalists, researchers, and policymakers. The site’s Left-wing slant ensures that students, voters, and the general public are consistently fed a one-sided perspective, warping public perception and reinforcing media narratives that favor the political Left.
This should alarm anyone who values intellectual diversity and open debate. The internet was supposed to democratize information, allowing users to access multiple viewpoints and reach their own conclusions. Instead, Wikipedia’s editorial policies are steering the online discourse toward a singular ideological perspective, eliminating the voices of half the country in the process.
It is time for accountability. Wikimedia, Wikipedia’s parent company, is a 501(C)(3) not-for-profit. Trump’s IRS should investigate it and end its tax-free status if it does not immediately come into compliance with the law. Every federal agency should also terminate all contracts and grants they have been awarded to Wikipedia. American taxpayers should never be forced to turn over their hard-earned income to politicized organizations.
The battle against censorship and for free speech is one of the most critical fights of our time. Nobody is saying that Wikipedia cannot have a radical point of view. But conservatives should never confuse Wikipedia for what it once was, and Americans should never have to subsidize the radical arm of a radical political organization.
* * *
Dan Schneider is the Vice President of Media Research Center&#8217;s Free Speech America.
Luis Cornelio is Associate Editor of Media Research Center&#8217;s Free Speech America.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Menu