DNSFilter is an internet security service designed to block harmful or deceptive websites and protect users from cyber threats. However, it’s recently come under fire for censoring certain conservative media outlets, labeling them as “contentious” or “misinformation,” which prevents users from accessing their content. Notably, Blaze News is among those blacklisted.
A reader alerted us earlier this week that they were unable to access Blaze News while using a device with DNSFilter. Curious about this, we decided to download a free trial of the service and ran tests on multiple conservative and liberal media sites. The findings were surprising.
In examining 26 well-known conservative media outlets, we noticed that five of them triggered a content warning. This warning indicated that each site was “blocked because it’s associated with the Contentious & Misinformation category.” The blocked sites included:
- Blaze News
- The Daily Caller
- One America News Network
- The Federalist
- RedState
Interestingly, other prominent conservative outlets like the Daily Wire, Breitbart, Turning Point USA, Fox News, and the Babylon Bee were accessible without any warnings.
Naturally, we wondered whether this pattern also applied to left-leaning media. So, we tested well-known outlets such as CNN, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. All of them went through DNSFilter with no issues, despite their history of presenting biased narratives.
The real test lay in checking openly contentious leftist sites. Our intuition proved correct when we found that the Guardian, Slate, and Vice were all accessible, leading us straight to their homepages. None were flagged or blocked.
Ultimately, not a single left-leaning site we checked was obstructed.
This isn’t the first instance of Blaze News encountering censorship. You might remember that we had to shift to a subscription model in 2023 after facing significant suppression from Big Tech, which also impacted our ad revenue. Thankfully, we have support from readers like you that allows us to continue reporting on these critical issues.
Blaze News similarly found itself blacklisted by NewsGuard and the Global Disinformation Index, with attempts made to demonetize us and push us off the internet. Despite these challenges, we’ve managed to persist and are committed to uncovering such actions.
Armed with our findings, Blaze News reached out to DNSFilter seeking clarification on why specific conservative media outlets faced restrictions while others did not. Unfortunately, we did not receive any response by the time of this report.
Amber Duke, editor-in-chief of the Daily Caller, offered her perspective as well:
Secretly blacklisting legitimate news organizations as “misinformation” is exactly the kind of censorship that fueled the rise of independent media. Americans are tired of Big Tech telling them what they can and cannot read. If this company has chosen to block our content, it needs to clarify who made that call and why.
If you’re using DNSFilter, it’s possible to whitelist Blaze News via your account’s Policies page. Just select Filtering, edit the policy, and add “TheBlaze.com” to the allow list.
If you can’t access your DNSFilter settings, consider asking your administrator to follow the instructions above or to disable the “contentious & misinformation” category entirely, as it appears to be biased or incorrect.
