Sources
How the list is built
BDS’s own website decides which brands are flagged and at what level. Once a week the service reads these pages again, checks what changed, and publishes a new version only after it passes its checks.
What the service reads
BDS's boycott guide
Decides each brand's level: the consumer boycott targets, the shopper-led boycotts BDS backs, and the pressure targets. A brand's own paragraph wins over the heading it sits under.
BDS's September 2025 poster
Used only for brands the guide text lacks, and only when another BDS page also names the brand as a target.
BDS's campaigns page
Boycotts BDS backs outside the guide (Level 4), and the campaigns it has ended.
BNC and PACBI statements and BDS news
New calls, ended calls and the sub-brands BDS names.
BDS's No Tech for Oppression page
Its tech targets, on Level 3.
Wikidata
Which brands each flagged company owns, from its ownership and subsidiary records (CC0 licence).
The UN settlements database
Companies listed for business in Israeli settlements, mapped to brands by hand, for Level 6.
Where the words come from
A brand’s reason is BDS’s own paragraph, rewritten in plain words and marked “BDS says”, or a neutral line from the UN.
Stored text comes only from BDS, the UN and Wikidata. Other reporting appears only as links, and BDS’s links are checked every week.
A finding read from a BDS page is kept only when its quote is found word for word on that page.
A new list is held back when too much changes at once, and the list in use stays live. Every change is logged on the changelog.
Where we make our own calls
BDS decides which brands are listed and at what level. A few practical things it does not decide, so we do. Every one is logged on the changelog with its reason.
Spellings
Other ways people write a brand name, such as Hewlett-Packard, McDonalds or Disney Plus, so the highlighter finds them.
Words with two meanings
Rules so that a name is flagged only when it means the brand: Amazon the shop, not the Amazon rainforest; Ring the doorbell camera, not ring the bell. Each rule is tested on example sentences.
Who owns what
Ownership comes from Wikidata. We set aside links that are out of date, minority stakes, or that the record shows are wrong.
Brand websites and links
Which websites belong to a brand, and which links on them are not flagged because the page belongs to someone else, such as a YouTube video or an Amazon product.
Shopping advice
A short alternatives line where BDS names none.
What is not used
Other boycott lists, websites and apps were reviewed and are not used: some are no longer kept up to date, some carry no licence, some forbid automated reading, and some publish no data at all.
Country lookups for the anonymous usage counts: IP Geolocation by DB-IP.