If you’re tired of censorship, cancel culture, and the erosion of privacy and civil liberties subscribe to Reclaim The Net
(Reclaim The Net) — Since the start of September, the Biden administration’s National Science Foundation (NSF) and State Department have awarded grants totaling more than $4 million to programs, studies, and other initiatives that target “misinformation” – a term that the Biden administration has used to demand censorship of content that challenges the federal government’s COVID narrative.
READ: Is Trump forcing Democrats to reveal their opposition to all abortion restrictions?
The NSF has awarded the following nine grants since September 1:
- A $330,000 grant to a postdoctoral fellowshipthat will “develop educational materials to help identify misinformation in media.” The associated program began on September 1, 2023.
- A $1.5 million grant to Arizona State Universityas part of a biological sciences program. The grant will help build “new risk management strategies” and its description claims that the “rapid dissemination of information on the internet is contributing to the spread of misinformation about hazards, risks, and how to manage them.” The associated program began on September 1, 2023.
- A $529,609 grant to Florida International Universityto conduct a study on “detection and containment of influence campaigns” that “distribute and amplify misinformation and hate speech with significant societal impact.” The associated program is due to start on October 1, 2023.
- Two grants totaling $730,017 to the Research Foundation for the State University of New Yorkand Trustees of Boston University for a collaborative research program that will develop a platform to “help identify and mitigate information manipulation (misinformation and dis-information).” The associated programs are due to start on October 1, 2023.
- Two grants totaling $547,555 to the University of Floridaand the University of North Carolina at Charlotte as part of a collaborative research program involving the Poynter Institute – an organization that certifies Facebook’s “fact-checkers” through its International Fact-Checking Network and receives funding from Big Tech. The grant descriptions claims that “combating misinformation in the digital age has been a challenging subject with significant social implications” and describe misinformation as “a serious threat.” The associated programs are due to start on October 1, 2023.
- Two grants totaling $600,000 to the University of Rochesterand Trustees of Indiana University for a collaborative research program that aims to increase the efficiency of an AI technique that can be applied to various areas, including “identifying misinformation on social media.” The associated programs are due to start on October 1, 2023.
The State Department has awarded the following five grants since September 1:
- An $18,000 grant to the Albanian-based non-governmental organization (NGO) the Institute for Democracy, Media, and Cultureto ensure a “whole-of-society response to cyber incidents and misinformation.” The associated program began on September 1, 2023.
- A $14,500 grant to Paraguay’s American Cultural Centerthat will be used to implement workshops that “seek to combat misinformation and promote responsible digital citizenship.” The associated program began on September 1, 2023.
- A $15,000 grant to the Faculty of Social and Political Sciences at Udayana Universityto “raise digital literacy among selected amcors communities, journalists, and social media influencers to combat misinformation, pre-2024 general election.” The associated program is due to start on October 1, 2023.
- A $50,000 grant to New York Universityto complete the implementation of a speaker series that supports “countering misinformation.” The associated program is due to start on October 1, 2023.
- A $50,000 grant to the non-profit Digital Rights Nepal“to create a sustainable network of youth to promote digital rights, safer internet use and a collective resilience towards misinformation and disinformation.” The associated program is due to start on October 2, 2023.
These awards were granted as the Biden administration faces a major lawsuit for pressuring Big Tech to censor content that it deems to be misinformation.
An appeals court recently stated that the Biden regime violated the First Amendment when pushing social media platforms to censor and in an Independence Day ruling on this case, a judge described the Biden admin’s actions as “Orwellian.” The Supreme Court is now considering whether to hear the case.
While some of the grants focus have been awarded to non-American organizations, whose misinformation targeting efforts don’t fall under the scope of the First Amendment, these types of programs can result in the speech of Americans being targeted.
For example, Biden’s State Department has previously funded foreign think tanks that created “disinformation” blacklists. These blacklists were used to target American conservative media outlets.
Both of the agencies that awarded these grants have been involved in prior censorship controversies.
In addition to funding groups that created disinformation blacklists, Biden’s State Department has flagged thousands of accounts to Twitter, now known as X, for censorship.
Meanwhile, the NSF has been accused of funding programs that develop tech that targets vaccine dissent and has funded research on correcting “false beliefs” online.
Reprinted with permission from Reclaim The Net.