Stop Funding Fake News


Stop Funding Fake News is an advocacy group which asks advertisers to stop placing ads on web sites it considers to be distributing misinformation for partisan or hateful reasons. The organization is small and mostly anonymous, with the notable exception of British TV celebrity Rachel Riley.

History

The campaign began in March 2019, inspired by the U.S. success of Sleeping Giants and backed by Rachel Riley. Sleeping Giant had convinced several advertisers not to advertise on the Breitbart News website.
In March 2019, the campaign helped persuade charity Macmillan Cancer Support not to advertise with The Canary, which it described as promoting conspiracy theories, defending antisemitism, and publishing fake news, after which Riley was targeted by trolls on Twitter. The action reportedly led to The Canary, which said they were "susceptible to pressure from political Zionists, and our advertising revenue is under fire", downsizing its operations. Then Labour Party MP Chris Williamson described the SFFN's campaign against The Canary as "sinister".
The same week as The Canary's decison, Stephen Yaxley-Lennon's far right TR News, another target of the campaign, gave up on advertising to rely solely on donations.
By September 2019, Ted Baker, Adobe Inc., Chelsea FC, eBay and Manchester United were among the 40 brands and charities that the group had persuaded to block out fake news sites. In October 2019, MP Mary Creagh credited it with identifying advertisements for tours of the Houses of Parliament on Breitbart.
The campaign has also successfully targeted the right-wing Politicalite and Westmonster, Dorset Eye, and left wing Evolve Politics.

Site funding

The campaign has invited donations to support its work and hoped to employ 2 people in 2020; raising £2000 in the ten months since it began.