Florida has moved to shield public funds from being used to support what many see as efforts to police speech under the guise of media bias monitoring.
Under the state’s new fiscal year 2026 budget, taxpayer dollars can no longer be spent on advertising or marketing firms that contract with groups like NewsGuard, Ad Fontes, or the Global Disinformation Index (GDI).
The measure was signed into law by Governor Ron DeSantis on Monday.
We obtained a copy of the bill for you here.
A press release from the Independent Media Council emphasized that the restriction is aimed at blocking state agencies from doing business with companies that rely on “politically biased media monitoring services.”
The council stated, “These monitoring groups purport to be impartial, but consistently skew their ratings to target conservative and independent media from receiving advertising from major brands.”
NewsGuard, one of the most prominent organizations caught in the spotlight, has received federal backing in the form of a $750,000 grant from the Department of Defense.
This funding helped the group develop its “Misinformation Fingerprints” technology, which it now offers to social media platforms, artificial intelligence developers, and tech firms as a tool for tracking so-called misinformation.
Legal battles have already been mounted over government ties to groups like NewsGuard and GDI. The Federalist, The Daily Wire, and the state of Texas have sued the US State Department, arguing that federal dollars have been funneled into technologies that are “designed to silence Americans who question government claims.”
The lawsuit accuses the department of violating the Constitution and is still working its way through the courts. Meanwhile, efforts by Secretary of State Marco Rubio to dismantle the federal office involved in funding these initiatives have been stymied by judicial intervention in California.
Congress has not stayed on the sidelines.
The House Oversight Committee launched its own investigation into NewsGuard’s government contracts and the broader concern that taxpayer-funded tools are being used to suppress speech rather than protect it.
