The Telegraph has removed an article claiming campaign group Stop Funding Hate had amplified anti-Semitic social media posts.
The Telegraph also agreed to pay legal costs accrued by Stop Funding Hate in the process of objecting to the article.
Stop Funding Hate, founded in 2016, uses social media to encourage major advertisers not to spend money with right-wing media brands. A major object of its attention is currently GB News, encouraging an advertising boycott that has been in place by many major brands since the channel’s 2021 launch, affecting its revenues.
Stop Funding Hate has also targeted the Daily Mail, The Sun and the Daily Express, although it changed its stance on the latter in 2018 crediting then-editor Gary Jones for detoxifying the brand.
The Telegraph published an article online on Saturday 22 March, and in The Sunday Telegraph in print the next day, headlined: “Stop Funding Hate campaign group accused of amplifying ‘anti-Semites'”.
The article alleged that Stop Funding Hate “failed to act when Jewish people are the target of hatred on its own social media account”.
Press Gazette understands Stop Funding Hate does frequently remove comments by third parties on its posts where possible (this can be done on Facebook). But the group said that The Telegraph never shared links to the alleged posts that led to the article, meaning it was unable to take any action to delete them if necessary and it had not seen any evidence that it interacted with anti-Semitic accounts.
The group felt strongly that it should make clear to its supporters it would never knowingly amplify anti-Semitic content and instructed lawyers to contact The Telegraph at the start of last week.
By the end of Friday The Telegraph offered to remove the article and cover Stop Funding Hate’s legal costs, although it did not accept any liability.
The group said: “It’s a fundamental principle that Stop Funding Hate opposes all forms of hate – including anti-Semitism – and that the campaign must be inclusive of people from all communities.”
Press Gazette understands Stop Funding Hate’s lawyers are separately in touch with GB News over segments on its Headliners and Free Speech Nation programmes in which presenters and guests discussed the Telegraph story.
On Headliners, comedian Leo Kearse said: “Far left pressure group Stop Funding Hate have been accused of – you guessed it – funding hate” and Aideen McQueen said “they’ve been giving out about Marks & Spencer and they’ve saying things like – I mean – anti-Semitic stuff”.
A Telegraph spokesperson declined to comment. GB News has also been contacted for comment.
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