Web Summit, the largest technology conference in Europe, has withdrawn an invitation for speakers from the Grayzone, after a backlash against the website’s anti-Ukrainian government narratives.
(Bloomberg) — Web Summit, the largest technology conference in Europe, has withdrawn an invitation for speakers from the Grayzone, after a backlash against the website’s anti-Ukrainian government narratives.
In a series of tweets, the Web Summit, which is expecting more than 70,000 attendees at its conference in Lisbon next week, said late Wednesday that they had rescinded their invitation from the Grayzone following controversy over their presence on the schedule.
“We understand the reaction of many to Grayzone’s presence in Lisbon and we pledge to approach the crucial issues of freedom of expression and platform technologies with greater care,” the conference said on Twitter.
Since the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Grayzone has published posts that accuse senior members of the Ukraine government and military of being sympathetic to Nazis.
Asked for a comment, Editor-in-Chief Max Blumenthal said “powerful forces” had deemed the Grayzone’s “critical journalism” incompatible with the conference. He said the cancellation occurred in an atmosphere when calls for negotiation and dissent against a “war that is ruining European economies and bringing the West to the brink of nuclear confrontation are ruthlessly silenced.”
The company, which says it produces investigations on “empire,” also cast doubt about the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and writes stories about what it describes as intelligence activity and how it says the US and UK governments are interfering in other countries’ affairs. Left-leaning website Alternet.org funded the company from 2016 to 2018, and the Grayzone says it’s now independent.
–With assistance from Agatha Cantrill.
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