NewsGuard
Browser extension that rates news sites on nine journalistic criteria. Used by libraries, advertisers, and AI companies — and now sued by both sides of the trust war.
What should journalists know about NewsGuard?
NewsGuard rates news sites on nine criteria and slaps a green or red shield next to links in Google, Bing, social feeds, and search results. The pitch is simple: hand readers a nutrition label for the source before they click. Co-founded in 2018 by Steven Brill (American Lawyer, Court TV) and Gordon Crovitz (former Wall Street Journal publisher) with $6M led by Publicis Groupe and the Knight Foundation. Hundreds of public libraries get it free. Microsoft bundled it into Edge. The American Federation of Teachers partnered with NewsGuard to train members on misinformation. The product works as advertised — ratings are written by named human analysts and sites get a chance to respond before publication. The controversy is downstream. Conservative outlets accuse NewsGuard of partisan bias. House Republicans opened a 2024 oversight probe. The Daily Wire, The Federalist, and Texas AG Ken Paxton sued the State Department in 2024 over a $25,000 grant to NewsGuard, and a federal judge let the case proceed. In February 2026 NewsGuard sued the Trump FTC, alleging Chairman Andrew Ferguson used the Omnicom-IPG merger conditions to bar the combined ad agency from subscribing to NewsGuard ratings. A separate defamation suit by the Consortium for Independent Journalism was dismissed in March 2025. Bottom line for journalists: NewsGuard is a useful third-party signal, not a verdict. Treat its ratings the way you treat any source — informative, fallible, and worth reading the underlying nutrition label rather than just the score.
Librarians teaching media literacy to patrons. Educators showing students how source-level signals work. Newsroom researchers wanting a quick second opinion on an unfamiliar outlet. AI companies licensing reliability data for training set hygiene.
Replacing your own source vetting. Settling editorial disputes about a competitor's credibility. Anyone who needs a politically uncontested authority — NewsGuard sits in the middle of an active legal and regulatory fight.
Security & Privacy
Data is scrambled while being sent to their servers
Data is scrambled when stored on their servers
Where servers are located — affects which governments can request your data
Privacy policy summary
Browser extension reports the URLs you visit to NewsGuard's rating database to display the appropriate shield. Account required for paid subscribers. Personal data handled per U.S. consumer privacy norms. Specific retention periods not published on the marketing site.
How to protect yourself:
Treat shield ratings as one input, not a verdict — NewsGuard publishes the underlying nutrition label and you should read it before quoting the score. The extension reports visited URLs to NewsGuard servers, so use a separate browser profile or skip it entirely when researching sensitive sources. Don't rely on NewsGuard alone for sites at the political edges where its ratings are actively contested. For libraries and classrooms, pair it with explicit instruction on the nine criteria so students learn the framework, not the badge.
Standard commercial SaaS. HTTPS in transit. U.S. jurisdiction. The risk profile here is editorial and political, not technical: NewsGuard sees the URLs you visit, and the company is actively litigating with the FTC. For routine library and classroom use, the security posture is fine. For sensitive newsroom research, use a separate browser profile or skip the extension.
Who Owns This
Known issues
Politically contested. House Oversight probe opened 2024. Daily Wire/Federalist/Texas AG lawsuit against State Department grant proceeding. NewsGuard v. FTC First Amendment suit filed February 2026 alleging FTC Chairman Ferguson used Omnicom-IPG merger conditions to block ad-agency clients from using NewsGuard. Defamation suit by Consortium for Independent Journalism dismissed March 2025. Critics on the right argue ratings skew left; NewsGuard publishes its methodology and gives sites a right of reply. Browser extension reports visited URLs to NewsGuard servers.
Pricing
$4.95/month for personal browser extension. Free for all Microsoft Edge users. Free for libraries and schools. Enterprise pricing for advertisers and AI companies (NewsGuard for AI, NewsGuard for Advertising).
This is an editorial assessment based on publicly available information as of 2026-04-07, using our published methodology. Independent security review is pending. Security posture can change at any time. This is not a guarantee of safety.
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