Mail Online demands browser warning U-turn

The Daily Mail’s website is calling for a browser alert that criticises its journalism to be changed.

The NewsGuard plug-in currently brings up a warning that says dailymail.co.uk “generally fails to maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability”.

It has given this advice since August. But the matter came to prominence last week, after Microsoft updated its Edge browser app for Android and iOS devices and built in NewsGuard.

This prompted several other media outlets to report the story. “We have only very recently become aware of the NewsGuard start-up and are in discussions with them to have this egregiously erroneous classification resolved as soon as possible,” said a spokesman for Mail Online.

At present, NewsGuard must be switched on by users of Microsoft’s Edge app, but it is understood that there are plans for it to become the default option in the future. The New York-based service - which is independent of Microsoft - also has ambitions to include its tool in further products from the Windows developer as well as other tech firms.

But for now, it can be used as an add-on extension in the desktop version of web browsers including Edge, Google’s Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari. Steve Brill, a NewsGuard co-founder, said the Mail Online verdict had been reached in a transparent manner.

“We spell out fairly clearly in the label exactly how many times we have attempted to contact them. The analyst that wrote this write-up got someone on the phone who, as soon he heard who she was and where she was calling from, hung up.