Daily Caller News Foundation reporter Caitlin Richardson explained at a Congressional hearing Tuesday that the Biden administration is funding research to curb online “misinformation.”
In February 2023, the DCNF reported that the National Science Foundation (NSF) received funding for a research project titled “Track F.”During the Special Subcommittee on Federal Weaponization. hearingRichardson detailed findings that the multimillion-dollar program used taxpayer money to fund numerous projects to censor speech in the United States.
“Efforts range from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warning people about posting during the coronavirus outbreak to the FBI working with social media companies to suppress Hunter Biden's laptop story. , fits a broader trend of increased federal involvement in online censorship,” Richardson said. (Related: 'I haven't denied the allegations': DCNF reporter explains the latest developments in the Fani Willis saga)
Since President Biden took office in 2021, the NSF has spent $38.8 million on “misinformation” efforts, according to a November 2022 report from the Freedom Online Foundation (FFO). However, DCNF found even more grants showing that NSF has allocated additional funding since FFO's report targeting misinformation and disinformation.
“NSF is committed not to engage in censorship and not to partner directly with social media platforms,” Richardson added. “But taxpayer money spent on such projects remains problematic, as does the agency’s answers to candid questions about its programs.”
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Emails released by the Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on Federal Weaponization in advance of the hearing show that NSF program manager Michael Posmantier sent a message indicating his intention to “consider their withdrawal.” It turned out that he had sent it. [the videos] Pages should be taken down or locked as soon as possible the day after the DCNF report is published.
“If a government agency's response to fair questions from journalists is to develop a strategy of rebranding to avoid attention, why is the government in the business of telling reporters what is true and what is false?” Do they have the funding tools? If their impulse is to withhold information, how can they trust the project to sift through what information is reliable?” Richardson said.
“Government is not the arbiter of truth. Our Founders understood this, and that's why we have the First Amendment,” Richardson added. “They understood the dangers of governments telling people what to believe and targeting views that contradict the official narrative. Funding outside organizations to pursue information control is is as much a threat to free speech and freedom of the press as any tyrannical government.”
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