An Unreliable Seal of Approval

A lot of sites with .org in their addresses are publishers of false or misleading information

- MELISSA GOLDIN

PUBLIC INTEREST REGISTRY (PIR), a U.S. nonprofit that owns and manages all.org domains and advocates for internet-related policy issues, markets its well-known suffix as "one of the most trusted domains” that "has enabled people and organizations the world over to establish their trusted online identity.” Indeed, many websites tout their .org address as evidence that they meet some standard of trustworthiness.

In fact, there are no such standards. An analysis by NewsGuard, a service which rates the credibility of news and information websites, found a significant number of .org sites traffic in misinformation related to COVID-19, U.S. politics and other important issues. Of 290 .org sites in NewsGuard's U.S. database as of February 2022, nearly 20 percent (56 sites) were Red-rated, meaning they are generally unreliable.

PIR: Monitoring is not our job

Asked about the large number of .org sites that have published false claims, PIR chief strategy officer Judy Song-Marshall told NewsGuard in a February 2022 email that monitoring .org sites for quality is not PIR's role.