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The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), formerly Brixton Endeavors, is a British-American not-for-profit NGO company with offices in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
and
Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...
with the stated purpose of stopping the spread of
online hate speech Online hate speech is a type of speech that takes place online with the purpose of attacking a person or a group based on their race, religion, ethnic origin, sexual orientation, disability, and/or gender. Online hate speech is not easily defin ...
and
disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...
. It campaigns to deplatform people that it believes promote hate or
misinformation Misinformation is incorrect or misleading information. Misinformation and disinformation are not interchangeable terms: misinformation can exist with or without specific malicious intent, whereas disinformation is distinct in that the information ...
, and campaigns to restrict media organisations such as ''
The Daily Wire The Daily Wire is an American conservative media company founded in 2015 by political commentator Ben Shapiro and film director Jeremy Boreing. The company is a major publisher on Facebook, and produces podcasts such as ''The Ben Shapiro S ...
'' from advertising. CCDH is a member of the
Stop Hate For Profit The 2020 Facebook ad boycotts were a group of boycotts that took place during the month of July 2020. Much of the boycotts were organized under the Stop Hate for Profit campaign, launched by the advocacy groups the Anti-Defamation League, the NA ...
coalition. According to public records, the organisation was incorporated in 2018 in London as Brixton Endeavours Limited. It changed its name to Center for Countering Digital Hate in August 2019. In 2021, its US office was registered as a
nonprofit organisation A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...
in the United States. CCDH's current CEO is Imran Ahmed.


Activities

The CCDH has targeted social media platforms for what it says are insufficient efforts on their part to fight
neo-Nazis Neo-Nazism comprises the post–World War II militant, social, and political movements that seek to revive and reinstate Nazi ideology. Neo-Nazis employ their ideology to promote hatred and racial supremacy (often white supremacy), to att ...
and
anti-vaccine Anti-vaccine activism, which collectively constitutes the "anti-vax" movement, is a set of organized activities expressing opposition to vaccination, and these Social networking, collaborating networks have often sought to increase vaccine h ...
advocates. The CCDH wrote an article asking Google to stop running advertisements for what the CCDH called "racist disinformation and conspiracies" relating to
George Soros George Soros (born György Schwartz; August 12, 1930) is an American investor and philanthropist. , he has a net worth of US$7.2 billion, Note that this site is updated daily. having donated more than $32 billion to the Open Society Foundat ...
, claims that the U.S.
National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...
funded the
Wuhan Institute of Virology The Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (WIV; zh, s=中国科学院武汉病毒研究所) is a research institute on virology under the Wuhan Branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Located in Jiangxia District, Wuh ...
, and the veracity of climate change claims. Advertisements from American news site ''
The Daily Wire The Daily Wire is an American conservative media company founded in 2015 by political commentator Ben Shapiro and film director Jeremy Boreing. The company is a major publisher on Facebook, and produces podcasts such as ''The Ben Shapiro S ...
'' were targeted by CCDH in a 2020 campaign.


Campaigns


Galloway and Hopkins

In January 2020, the CCDH campaigned against
Katie Hopkins Katie Olivia Hopkins (born 13 February 1975) is an English media personality, far-right political commentator, and former columnist and businesswoman. She was a contestant on the third series of the reality show ''The Apprentice'' in 2007; f ...
, a
far-right Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on the far end of the ...
political commentator, and
George Galloway George Galloway (born 16 August 1954) is a British politician, broadcaster, and writer. He has been leader of the Workers Party of Britain since he founded it in 2019, and is a former leader of the Respect Party. Until 2003, he was a member ...
, a veteran politician and broadcaster. TV presenter
Rachel Riley Rachel Annabelle Riley (born 11 January 1986) is an English television presenter. She co-presents the Channel 4 daytime puzzle show '' Countdown'' and its comedy spin-off ''8 Out of 10 Cats Does Countdown''. She is a mathematics graduate. He ...
and the CCDH directly lobbied "
Big Tech Big Tech, also referred to as the Tech Giants or Tech Titans, is a collective term for the largest and most influential technology companies in the world. The label draws a parallel to similar classifications in other industries, such as "Big Oi ...
" companies to have both journalists removed from major social media platforms. According to media reports, Riley and Imran Ahmed had a "secret meeting" with
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
's London based staff in January 2020, demanding the removal of Hopkins and Galloway from their platform. CCDH's attempt to remove Galloway from Twitter failed, but Hopkins had her account suspended for a week in February 2020.


David Icke

In April 2020 the CCDH launched a campaign against the British conspiracy theorist
David Icke David Vaughan Icke ( ; born 29 April 1952) is an English conspiracy theorist, author and a former Association football, footballer and sports broadcaster. He has written over 20 books, self-published since the mid-1990s, and spoken in more tha ...
, who gained increased media attention during the
COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...
-associated lockdown in the United Kingdom. In November 2020, Twitter removed Icke's account for violating the site's rules against spreading misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic.


''Stop Funding Misinformation''

Originally called ''Stop Funding Fake News'', the campaign asks advertisers to stop placing ads on websites it argues are spreading misinformation ("
fake news Fake news or information disorder is false or misleading information (misinformation, disinformation, propaganda, and hoaxes) claiming the aesthetics and legitimacy of news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person ...
"). It began as a grassroot campaign in March 2019, inspired by the US success of
Sleeping Giants Sleeping Giants is a social media activism organization aiming to pressure companies into removing advertisements from several conservative news outlets by publicly accusing them of malpractices such as misinformation and hate speech. The c ...
which had convinced several advertisers not to advertise on the ''
Breitbart News ''Breitbart News Network'' (; known commonly as ''Breitbart News'', ''Breitbart'', or ''Breitbart.com'') is an Radical right (United States), American far-rightMultiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * syndicated news, opinion, and commentar ...
'' website.
Ted Baker Ted Baker is a British clothing brand founded in 1988 in Glasgow, Scotland, which traded in shops under the Ted Baker name until falling into administration in March 2024. It was relaunched online in November 2024. The brand is styled as 'Ted B ...
,
Adobe Inc. Adobe Inc. ( ), formerly Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American computer software company based in San Jose, California. It offers a wide range of programs from web design tools, photo manipulation and vector creation, through to video/audi ...
,
Chelsea FC Chelsea Football Club is a professional football club based in Fulham, West London, England. The club was founded in 1905 and named after neighbouring area Chelsea. They compete in the Premier League, the top tier of English football, pl ...
,
eBay eBay Inc. ( , often stylized as ebay) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that allows users to buy or view items via retail sales through online marketplaces and websites in 190 markets worldwide. ...
and
Manchester United Manchester United Football Club, commonly referred to as Man United (often stylised as Man Utd) or simply United, is a professional association football, football club based in Old Trafford (area), Old Trafford, Greater Manchester, Engl ...
were among the 40 brands and charities that the campaign had persuaded to stop advertising on what it called fake news sites. In March 2019, charity
Macmillan Cancer Support Macmillan Cancer Support is one of the largest British charities and provides specialist health care, information and financial support to people affected by cancer. It also looks at the social, emotional and practical impact cancer can have, an ...
removed an advertisement from '' The Canary'' website after complaints from the campaign and from others. The campaign accused ''The Canary'' of promoting
conspiracy theories A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy (generally by powerful sinister groups, often political in motivation), when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * ...
, defending
antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...
, and publishing fake news. ''The Canary'' said changes to Google and Facebook's algorithms and the Stop Funding Fake News campaign led to ''The Canary'' downsizing its operations; it said that it was "against the actions of a state, not against Jewish people as an ethnic group" and that it had been "smeared with accusations of anti-Semitism by those who've weaponised the term for political ends". Labour Party MP Chris Williamson described the campaign against ''The Canary'' as "sinister".


Google advertisements for media organisations

In 2023, the CCDH has campaigned to restrict the reach of the following media organisations by targeting their use of the Google advertising platform: ''
Breitbart News ''Breitbart News Network'' (; known commonly as ''Breitbart News'', ''Breitbart'', or ''Breitbart.com'') is an Radical right (United States), American far-rightMultiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * syndicated news, opinion, and commentar ...
'',
CNSNews The Media Research Center (MRC) is an American conservative content analysis and media watchdog group based in Herndon, Virginia, and founded in 1987 by L. Brent Bozell III. The nonprofit MRC has received financial support primarily from Rob ...
,
Hot Air ''Hot Air'' is a conservatism in the United States, conservative American political blog. It is written by Ed Morrissey, John Sexton, and David Strom. Karen Townsend and Jazz Shaw wrote for the blog until their deaths in 2024. The pseudonymous ...
,
Newsbusters The Media Research Center (MRC) is an American conservative content analysis and media watchdog group based in Herndon, Virginia, and founded in 1987 by L. Brent Bozell III. The nonprofit MRC has received financial support primarily from ...
,
Newsmax Newsmax, Inc. (or Newsmax.com, previously styled NewsMax) is an American cable news, political opinion commentary, and digital media company founded by Christopher Ruddy in 1998. It has been variously described as conservative, right-wing, an ...
, MRCTV,
RedState ''RedState'' is an American conservative political blog. Prior to 2017, it organized "RedState gatherings", a summer convention for conservative activists and grassroots political activism which featured many prominent public figures in conser ...
, Twitchy, ''
The Daily Wire The Daily Wire is an American conservative media company founded in 2015 by political commentator Ben Shapiro and film director Jeremy Boreing. The company is a major publisher on Facebook, and produces podcasts such as ''The Ben Shapiro S ...
'', and
Zero Hedge Zero Hedge (or ZeroHedge) is a far-right libertarian financial blog and news aggregator. Zero Hedge is bearish in its investment outlook and analysis, often deriving from a strict adherence to the Austrian School of economics and credit cycl ...
. The CCDH notified
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
that the Zero Hedge website had published what it called "racist articles" about the
Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...
protests. As a result, in June 2020, Google found that reader comments on Zero Hedge breached its policies and banned Zero Hedge from its advertising platform.


Climate change denial

In November 2021, a report by the CCDH identified "ten fringe publishers" that together were responsible for nearly 70 percent of Facebook user interactions with content that denied climate change. Facebook said the percentage was overstated and called the study misleading. The "Toxic Ten" publishers were: ''
Breitbart News ''Breitbart News Network'' (; known commonly as ''Breitbart News'', ''Breitbart'', or ''Breitbart.com'') is an Radical right (United States), American far-rightMultiple sources: * * * * * * * * * * * * syndicated news, opinion, and commentar ...
'', ''
The Western Journal ''The Western Journal'', previously known as ''Western Journalism'', is an American conservative news and politics website based in Phoenix, Arizona. It was founded by political consultant Floyd Brown in 2008. History ''Western Journalism'' ...
'',
Newsmax Newsmax, Inc. (or Newsmax.com, previously styled NewsMax) is an American cable news, political opinion commentary, and digital media company founded by Christopher Ruddy in 1998. It has been variously described as conservative, right-wing, an ...
,
Townhall Townhall is an American conservative website, print magazine and radio news service. Katie Pavlich is Editor. Previously published by The Heritage Foundation, it is now owned and operated by Salem Communications. The website features more than ...
,
Media Research Center The Media Research Center (MRC) is an American conservative content analysis and media watchdog group based in Herndon, Virginia, and founded in 1987 by L. Brent Bozell III. The nonprofit MRC has received financial support primarily from R ...
, ''
The Washington Times ''The Washington Times'' is an American Conservatism, conservative daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It covers general interest topics with an emphasis on Politics of the United States, national politics. Its broadsheet daily edit ...
'', ''The Federalist Papers'', ''
The Daily Wire The Daily Wire is an American conservative media company founded in 2015 by political commentator Ben Shapiro and film director Jeremy Boreing. The company is a major publisher on Facebook, and produces podcasts such as ''The Ben Shapiro S ...
'', RT, and ''The Patriot Post''.


Vaccine disinformation

The Center has identified the top 12 spreaders of
anti-vaccine Anti-vaccine activism, which collectively constitutes the "anti-vax" movement, is a set of organized activities expressing opposition to vaccination, and these Social networking, collaborating networks have often sought to increase vaccine h ...
disinformation on social media platforms. The "Disinformation Dozen" were:
Joseph Mercola Joseph Michael Mercola (; born July 8, 1954) is an American alternative medicine proponent, osteopathic physician, and Internet business personality. He markets largely unproven dietary supplements and medical devices. On his website, Mercola ...
, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Ty and Charlene Bollinger,
Sherri Tenpenny Sherri J. Tenpenny is an American anti-vaccination activist and conspiracy theorist who promulgates disproven hypotheses that vaccines cause autism. An osteopathic physician by training, she is the author of four books opposing vaccination. ...
, Rizza Islam,
Rashid Buttar Rashid Ali Buttar (January 20, 1966 – May 18, 2023) was an American conspiracy theorist, anti-vaxxer and osteopathic physician. He was known for his controversial use of chelation therapy for numerous conditions, including autism and cancer ...
,
Erin Elizabeth Erin Elizabeth Finn is an American alternative health advocate who blogs under the name Health Nut News. She is known for propagating conspiracy theories relating to healthcare topics like COVID-19 and vaccines. She and her partner Joseph Merc ...
, Sayer Ji, Kelly Brogan,
Christiane Northrup Christiane Northrup is a former obstetrics and gynaecology physician and author who promotes pseudoscientific alternative medicine and anti-vaccine conspiracy theories. She has a history of opposing vaccination and has embraced QAnon ideology du ...
, Ben Tapper, and Kevin Jenkins.


TikTok

In December 2022, the CCDH reported that the social media platform
TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...
promoted self-harm and dieting content to users.


Twitter/X Corp.

In June 2023, the CCDH reported that after Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter, the site "fails to act on 99% of hate posted by Twitter Blue subscribers". Twitter's successor company, X Corp., responded to this by filing a lawsuit against the CCDH on 31 July 2023, saying that they "falsely claim it had statistical support showing the platform is overwhelmed with harmful content." On March 25, 2024 District Judge
Charles Breyer Charles Roberts Breyer (born November 3, 1941) is a senior United States district judge of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Breyer served as chairman of the United States Sentencing Commission from 2018 t ...
dismissed the case, writing that "This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech." In April 2024, X Corp. appealed the ruling to the
United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (in case citations, 9th Cir.) is the U.S. federal court of appeals that has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts for the following federal judicial districts: * Distric ...
.


Funding

In 2020, the BBC noted some of CCDH's funders as the
Pears Foundation William Pears Group is one of Britain's largest property companies, with £6 billion of property in London and south-east England. The William Pears Group was founded in 1952, by Bernard Pears and his son Clive Pears. It is run by Mark Pears ...
, the
Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust The Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust (JRCT) is a philanthropic grant-making trust that supports work undertaken in the UK and Ireland, and previously South Africa. It is one of three original trusts set up by Joseph Rowntree in 1904. The Trust ...
and the Barrow Cadbury Trust. In August 2023,
Jim Jordan James Daniel Jordan (born February 17, 1964) is an American politician who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives as the representative for since 2007. He is a member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party. ...
, the chair of the US House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, wrote to CCDH requesting the CCDH provide all documents and communications between the CCDH and the U.S. Executive branch and social media companies, a list of employees, contractors and grants received, to determine if the U.S. government "has coerced and colluded with companies and other intermediaries to censor speech". Responding to ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...
'' reporters, the CCDH denied receiving any funds from the United States government and provided documents it said showed its bipartisan approach.


Publications

* ''Don't Feed the Trolls: How to Deal with Hate on Social Media'' (2019) – a 12-page pamphlet on how
Internet trolls In slang, a troll is a person who posts deliberately offensive or provocative messages online (such as in social media, a newsgroup, a forum, a chat room, an online video game) or who performs similar behaviors in real life. The methods and m ...
operate, linked to a campaign of the same name involving
Gary Lineker Gary Winston Lineker ( ; born 30 November 1960) is an English Sports broadcasting, sports broadcaster and former professional Association football, footballer who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Lineker is the only player t ...
and other celebrities * ''The Anti-Vaxx Industry'' (2020) – describes how social media platforms such as Facebook enable the growth of lucrative anti-vaccination ('anti-vaxx') activism (including the finding that 400 anti-vaxx social media accounts reach 58 million followers), and that this has an impact on vaccine take-up, and recommends demonetisation as a strategy to respond to this. * ''Will to Act'' (2020) – argues that the largest social media companies fail to enforce their own rules preventing anti-vaccine and COVID-19 conspiracy theory content * ''The Anti-Vaxx Playbook'' (2020) – explores anti-vaxx tactics, messages, and the use of social media * ''Hatebook'' (2020) – co-authored by the Coalition for a Safer Web, accuses Facebook and Instagram of hosting 61 accounts that were selling neo-Nazi merchandise to fund
far-right extremism Far-right politics, often termed right-wing extremism, encompasses a range of ideologies that are marked by ultraconservatism, authoritarianism, ultranationalism, and Nativism (politics), nativism. This political spectrum situates itself on ...
. * ''Failure to Act'' (2021) – jointly with
Restless Development Restless Development (formerly known as Students Partnership Worldwide) is a non-governmental organization which organizes volunteer placements for young people in the areas of civic participation, livelihoods and employment, sexual rights, and ...
, tracks action taken by social media companies in response to anti-vaccine content * ''Malgorithm'' (2021) – a critical analysis of
Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
and
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
’s user engagement and content recommendation algorithm * ''The Disinformation Dozen'' (2021) – identifies the top 12 spreaders of anti-vaccine disinformation on social media platforms. The report cites these individuals as responsible for 65% of all anti-vaccination content across
Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...
,
Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...
and
Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...
. It was cited by the
Biden administration Joe Biden's tenure as the List of presidents of the United States, 46th president of the United States began with Inauguration of Joe Biden, his inauguration on January 20, 2021, and ended on January 20, 2025. Biden, a member of the Democr ...
in July 2021, in its criticism of Facebook and other social media companies for allowing pandemic disinformation to spread. * ''The Toxic Ten'' (2021) – identifies "ten fringe publishers" that together were responsible for nearly 70 percent of Facebook user interactions with content that denied climate change.


See also

*
Internet censorship in the United Kingdom Internet censorship in the United Kingdom is conducted under a variety of laws, judicial processes, administrative regulations and voluntary arrangements. It is achieved by blocking access to sites as well as the use of laws that criminalise p ...
*
Stop Funding Hate Stop Funding Hate is a pressure group which asks companies to stop advertising in, and thus stop providing funds for, certain British newspapers that it argues use "fear and division to sell more papers". Launch The Stop Funding Hate campaign was ...
, another British campaign with a similar methodology


References


Further reading

* * *


External links


Official website
{{Authority control 2010s establishments in the United Kingdom Companies based in the London Borough of Barnet Anti-racism in the United Kingdom COVID-19 misinformation Progressive organizations in the United States Progressive organisations in the United Kingdom