The largely State Department-funded National Endowment for Democracy (NED) announced that it was cutting off its funding for the Global Disinformation Index (GDI).

The goal of the GDI was to draw up lists of online publications and news sites susceptible to publishing "disinformation" which advertisers could then use to withdraw support from those publications. That list ended up putting a number of perfectly legitimate news sites—including Reason and the New York Post—on its list of 10 "riskiest" purveyors of misinformation.

An investigation by the Washington Examiner first uncovered the NED's funding for the disinformation index. A NED spokesperson confirmed to the Examiner that it would no longer be providing grants to the GDI, citing its requirement that it not involve itself in domestic U.S. politics.