The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has terminated government research grants for studying misinformation and disinformation. The defunding comes at a time when propaganda and scams fuelled by the latest artificial intelligence technologies are flooding social media networks, and tech companies are abandoning content moderation efforts and eliminating fact-checking teams.
The grant cancellations began on 18 April when the NSF saying it would not support research on misinformation or disinformation 鈥渢hat could be used to infringe on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens鈥�, citing an by President Donald Trump. An agency spokesperson declined to answer additional questions.
Both misinformation and disinformation typically refer to false or inaccurate information, except that disinformation is deliberately intended to deceive.
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鈥淭he costs of false beliefs to democracy and health cannot be priced,鈥� says at Cornell Tech in New York. He for potentially affected grants and contacted researchers to estimate that about $30 million in unspent grant funding had been cancelled. 鈥淭his is a tiny amount for the US government 鈥� but a large amount for academics to raise from other sources,鈥� he says.
The US government funding gap is not easily filled. Private companies such as Google and Microsoft conduct research on misinformation and disinformation, but often focus on 鈥渟afety-proofing鈥� specific products or services and do not typically publish their findings, says Mantzarlis.
Several researchers confirmed that they were notified of grant cancellations through messages sent to their university administration offices. An information technology researcher who was granted anonymity by New 杏吧原创 because they feared retaliation said the cancellation has halted their work on developing automated ways to detect fake news. 鈥淏urying your head in the sand is not a solution to the problem of misinformation,鈥� says the researcher.
Other cancelled grants funded research on the 聽and how . Some defunded studies were also addressing health misinformation 鈥� one cancelled grant was supporting research that examined potential . A researcher even on social media that her research grant on improving education on AI had been cancelled because her grant abstract merely mentioned the word 鈥渕isinformation鈥�.
鈥淚 think this is the wrong approach to assume that research is politically motivated because of the topic 鈥� scientists don鈥檛 pick the answers in advance,鈥� says at Cornell University in New York, whose was cancelled. 鈥淚 respect that the government can say 鈥榳e don鈥檛 think misinformation is worthy of publicly funded research anymore鈥�, but I think that is a mistake.鈥�
Wider US government science funding cuts are also spurring researchers to seek jobs outside the US. Margolin says his group鈥檚 postdoctoral research associate will probably have to leave the country unless the team can find other ways to fund her position.
