
An online advertising âwatchdogâ that targeted conservative media outlets before President Donald Trumpâs reelection is now losing its co-founder.
Nandani Jammi, co-founder of Check My Ads, will step down from her role as special projects leader on May 31, Jammi announced Friday on social media. Jammiâs nonprofit had long boasted about working to âdefundâ conservative sites over âdisinformationâ by pressuring the advertising industry but has backtracked on its rhetoric in recent months amid a defamation lawsuit and changing political leadership after the November elections.
Jammi said she âwill be opening up a consulting shop to work with a variety of clients, ranging from tech to non-profits and movement-buildingâ upon leaving.
Jammi and Check My Ads did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Check My Ads previously centered much of its work around a âdefund the insurrectionistsâ project aimed at steering advertising money away from conservatives such as Glenn Beck, Charlie Kirk and Dan Bongino, with the latter now working as Trumpâs FBI deputy director. Jammi and the Check My Ads team claimed such figures âincitedâ the Jan. 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters.
Before Trumpâs return, Jammi received sympathetic profiles from media outlets for battling âfar-rightâ media. A 2023 article by former Washington Post reporter Taylor Lorenz called Jammi âthe woman working to stop the far-right creator money machineâ and supportively referenced âdisinformationâ several times.
The group once described its efforts to defund Fox News, Breitbart and âinsurrectionist outletsâ prominently on its website, but it scrubbed these references from its front page sometime after Republicans won the November elections, the Washington Examiner reported. The front page now simply says Check My Ads is âthe digital advertising watchdogâ working to âprotect your right to be free from scams, lies, and manipulation online.â
Check My Ads boasted in an annual report that it âeducated 75 policymakersâ working for âregulatory bodies,â sparked more than five âgovernment inquiriesâ and âdrafted 3 legislative amendments or submissionsâ throughout 2024. The report did not give details on the officials involved, though it said the organization âbriefedâ policymakers from the U.S. and multiple foreign governments âon the need for oversight of the digital ad industry.â
The pro-free speech video platform Rumble also sued Jammi and other Check My Ads employees in November 2023, alleging the nonprofit made defamatory statements accusing Rumble of lying to its investors and taking most of its funding from Google. A judge ruled in September 2024 that Rumble could move forward with obtaining discovery evidence.
The Trump administration has signaled skepticism toward so-called âdisinformationâ trackers and announced Wednesday it is shutting down a State Department agency that funded such efforts.
âToday, Check My Ads has become the industryâs indisputable watchdog â led by a ⌠team that shares our commitment to broad, systemic change,â Jammi said in her post. âFrom here, thereâs nowhere to go but up.â
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporterâs byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
