New Report Details How National Science Foundation is Funding AI Tools to Censor and Indoctrinate Americans Online
February 6, 2024
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The House Judiciary Committee and its Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released an interim staff report titled, "The Weaponization of the National Science Foundation: How NSF is Funding the Development of Automated Tools to Censor Online Speech 'At Scale' and Trying to Cover Up its Actions."
The report details the National Science Foundation's (NSF) funding of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered censorship and propaganda tools, and its repeated efforts to cover up and avoid political and media scrutiny. In the name of combatting alleged misinformation regarding COVID-19 and the 2020 election, NSF has been issuing multi-million-dollar grants to university and non-profit research teams. The purpose of these taxpayer-funded projects is to develop AI-powered censorship and propaganda tools that can be used by governments and Big Tech to shape public opinion by restricting certain viewpoints or promoting others.
Non-public documents obtained by the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government demonstrate that these federal bureaucrats, "disinformation" researchers, and non-profit groups understood that their actions—"content moderation" and combatting so-called misinformation—amounted to "censorship." And yet, NSF forged ahead, supporting new technologies that would essentially enable the censorship of online speech "at scale."
From legal scholars to conservative journalists, NSF tracked any public criticism of its work in funding misinformation projects. NSF went so far as to develop a media strategy that considered blacklisting certain American media outlets because they were scrutinizing NSF's funding of censorship and propaganda tools.
Read the full interim staff report here.
The report details the National Science Foundation's (NSF) funding of artificial intelligence (AI)-powered censorship and propaganda tools, and its repeated efforts to cover up and avoid political and media scrutiny. In the name of combatting alleged misinformation regarding COVID-19 and the 2020 election, NSF has been issuing multi-million-dollar grants to university and non-profit research teams. The purpose of these taxpayer-funded projects is to develop AI-powered censorship and propaganda tools that can be used by governments and Big Tech to shape public opinion by restricting certain viewpoints or promoting others.
Non-public documents obtained by the House Judiciary Committee and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government demonstrate that these federal bureaucrats, "disinformation" researchers, and non-profit groups understood that their actions—"content moderation" and combatting so-called misinformation—amounted to "censorship." And yet, NSF forged ahead, supporting new technologies that would essentially enable the censorship of online speech "at scale."
From legal scholars to conservative journalists, NSF tracked any public criticism of its work in funding misinformation projects. NSF went so far as to develop a media strategy that considered blacklisting certain American media outlets because they were scrutinizing NSF's funding of censorship and propaganda tools.
Read the full interim staff report here.
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