Researchers slammed the Trump administration over the weekend after the National Science Foundation (NSF) terminated grant funding for research related to “misinformation” and “disinformation.”
As a result of President Donald Trump’s day one executive order “Restoring Freedom Of Speech And Ending Federal Censorship,” the NSF “will not prioritize research proposals that engage in or facilitate any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen,” the agency announced Friday.
“NSF will not support research with the goal of combating ‘misinformation,’ ‘disinformation,’ and ‘malinformation’ that could be used to infringe on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advances a preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate,” the agency’s frequently asked questions page updated Friday states.
The cuts were among awards the agency wrote were “not aligned with NSF’s priorities,” including others “on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).” The NSF declined to comment on the number of awards canceled or their amounts.
Researchers reacted on social media to receiving notice that their awards would be terminated.
“I got an email yesterday afternoon that my NSF SPRF Postdoctoral Fellowship was terminated,” Maddy Jalbert, who works at the Center for an Informed Public (CIP) at the University of Washington, wrote Saturday afternoon on Bluesky. “My grant focused on testing interventions to address online misinformation and I was 8 months into a two year appointment.”
The CIP was one of four institutions that formed the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP), which, partnering with CISA, flagged content during the 2020 election for social media companies to suppress, according to a House Judiciary Committee report.
Jalbert’s work included finding “effective strategies for preventing and correcting the spread of misinformation,” according to her faculty page.
University of Wisconsin professor Mike Wagner dubbed NSF’s actions a “Friday Night Massacre of accurate information.”
“We have a federal govenrment [sic] that does not consider the verifiable truth a priority,” he wrote.
Wagner previously led an NSF grant project called Course Correct, a tool designed “to help journalists identify and combat misinformation online.” His team received $750,000 in 2021 and $5 million in 2022.
Another researcher, Vanderbilt University professor Lisa Fazio, wrote on LinkedIn Saturday that her grant on “How False Beliefs Form & How to Correct Them” was canceled.
“Our lab is just one of dozens dealing with these censorious and illegal cancellations,” she wrote. “My heart breaks for the junior scholars whose careers will be the most affected.”
University of Washington professor Kate Starbird, who served on CISA’s Protecting Critical Infrastructure from Misinformation and Disinformation subcommittee, which offered recommendations on handling misinformation ahead of the 2022 midterms, wrote Friday on Bluesky that the “Trump regime is pulling funding on research that tries to understand rumors, misinfo, disinfo, propaganda, & the manipulation of online systems.”
“Not surprising that an administration that rose to power on the spread of bullshit and propaganda is terminating the funding of researchers studying these phenomena,” she wrote. “We are just receiving word about funding cancellations re: existing grants to members of our team and our colleagues.”
After the DCNF reported on several NSF misinformation-related research grants in 2023, NSF Convergence Accelerator Track F program manager Michael Pozmantier suggested pulling videos related to the programs down from YouTube in an email, according to an House Judiciary Committee report.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced April 16 that the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC) would shut down to protect freedom of speech.
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