Trump has cut more than $1B in research grants including one area he thrives - online misinformation
National Science Foundation grant funding cuts of more than 1,400 research programs include one designed to detect AI-generated videos at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York.
Independent News (UK)
The Trump administration has cut more than $1 billion worth of research grants, including studies that track online misinformation and harmful content.
Cuts into the grants looking to tackle the spread of online misinformation appear to stem from President Donald Trump’s executive order issued on January 20 that pledged to “restore freedom of speech and end federal censorship.”
The order says that the Biden administration “infringed” on the free speech of Americans “under the guise of combatting ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation.’”
While the cuts are also part of the administration’s broader mission to purge federal spending, the crackdown on research into misinformation aligns with the view adopted by many Trump supporters and allies that conservative Americans have been censored online, according to The New York Times. No evidence of any of the studies suggested that was the case, the newspaper notes.
READ ‘WHEN FREE SPEECH SOUNDS MORE LIKE SILENCE’ BY THE INTEGRITY PROJECT
ADDITIONAL NEWS FROM THE INTEGRITY PROJECT
