Summary
- National Science Foundation (NSF) spent $38.8 million on government grants and contracts to combat ”misinformation” since the start of the Biden administration.
- 64 NSF grants totaling $31.8 million were given to 42 different colleges and universities to research the science of stopping viral populist ideas.
- Some grants explicitly target “populist politicians” and “populist communications” to scientifically determine ”how best to counter populist narratives.”
When most people think of the National Science Foundation (NSF), they think about the US government investing tax dollars in grand advancements in mathematics, aerospace and engineering.
But under the Biden administration, the fastest-growing field of NSF grant funding appears to be the science of censorship.
At Foundation for Freedom Online, we previously reported the strange fact that the exact two universities who partnered with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to censor the 2020 election received a $3 million joint grant from the National Science Foundation just months after the election ended.
Neither of those two academic “disinfo labs” were taxpayer-funded before the 2020 election. But then, after an election where in effect they exclusively censored the social media opposition of the current administration, suddenly the current administration started hooking them up with government grants.
After that revelation, we investigated every NSF grant issued in 2021 and 2022 relating to social media “misinformation” or “disinformation.” Our goal was to determine the extent to which NSF is spending US tax dollars on censoring US taxpayers.
Our findings were profoundly disturbing.
Since the start of 2021, NSF has issued 64 government grants on the science of “countering” social media “mis/disinformation,” totaling $31.8 million. It has also issued two government grants, totaling $7 million. That brings a total of NSF-funded scientific censorship research to $38.8 million since the start of the Biden administration.
In just two years, those 64 government censorship grants were spread across 42 different colleges and universities. This incredible range of recipients covers every level of the country’s higher education institutions, both regionally and in terms of prestige.
By Mike Benz
Read Full Report on FoundationForFreedomOnline.com
About Mike Benz
Our Executive Director, Mike Benz, is a former State Department diplomat responsible for formulating and negotiating US foreign policy on international communications and information technology matters. Mr. Benz founded FFO as a civil society institution building on his experience in the role of championing digital freedom around the world in the public sector.
