President Donald Trump has shut down grants to counter so-called disinformation, throwing a group of misinformation researchers into a state of panic. Their concerns? Taxpayers will no longer pay for their ridiculous research.
The leftist New York Times provided refuge to the grief-stricken researchers in a puff piece headlined: “Trump Administration Cancels Scores of Grants to Study Online Misinformation.” The Times—a longtime defender of censorship—claimed that critics saw the Trump-ordered grant cuts are “stifling scientific inquiry into sources of harmful online content.” What’s worse, the paper leaned on the left’s favorite dismissal, proclaiming there “is no evidence” that any of the research led to censorship.
That claim crumbles under the weight of the facts, MRC Free Speech America VP Dan Schneider said. “It’s ridiculous—even by The Times standards—to claim there is no evidence of censorship. The entire premise of these programs is to monitor, flag and ultimately suppress constitutionally protected free speech.”
The agencies responsible for canceling these grants include the Pentagon, the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The reversal comes roughly two months after MRC Free Speech America released a report detailing 57 censorship initiatives of the Biden administration, which called out the NSF for exploiting tax dollars to fund a plethora of The Poynter Wannabes—that is, “censorship outfitters masquerading as ‘fact-checkers.'”
One taxpayer-funded project sought to develop a tool to detect AI-generated videos from photos. Another project examined how “malign” actors manipulated information on social media, according to The Times.
Defending the use of public funds taxpayers for these projects, Vanderbilt University professor Liza K. Fazio outrageously claimed: “When you ask Americans, these are things they’re really concerned about. They want to know what can be done.”
Fazio is right to a point. Americans are actually concerned about these things, but perhaps not for the reason she suggests. According to polling from the Foundation for Individual Rights/NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, free speech ranked among the top two issues ahead of the 2024 presidential election, with 63 percent calling it “very important,” next to inflation.
What’s more, while these projects may seem harmless at first glance, they have two significant flaws. First, they imply Americans can’t distinguish between real and fake content. Second, they target content that is likely protected by the First Amendment.
The Times dismissed these very issues, claiming complaints from pro-free speech advocates against “misinformation” research are misplaced. The newspaper contended that decisions to censor content solely rely on Big Tech companies. But of course, this is far from true.
According to the House Select Weaponization Subcommittee, the federal government actively participated in the now-defunct Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), a consortium of academics who identified allegedly false, yet constitutionally protected, content on social media and directly reported it to social media companies for further action.
Despite this, Boston University economist Marshall Van Alstyne claimed censorship is not “the nature” of their research. He has received more than $670,000 in tax dollars to develop a system to incentivize accuracy—by exposing individuals to potential financial liability for so-called misinformation. At the very least, such mechanisms create an environment that is chilling to free speech.
“I’m almost certain, this is going to lead to a vastly more polluted information environment,” Van Alstyne added, lamenting that unrestricted free speech would prevail and that Americans would be punished for exercising their free speech rights.
The cancellation of these grants follows Trump’s historic executive order restoring freedom of speech and ending the federally sponsored censorship of Americans. Signed on Jan. 20, Trump's order mandates that all federal agencies protect the right of Americans to engage in free speech and ensure that no taxpayer resources or employees are used for activities that contradict this principle.
Conservatives are under attack! Contact your representatives and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on hate speech and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
