The Department of Justice awards Clemson University nearly $1 million to develop a real-time tracker of misinformation, amidst concerns of censorship and political bias.
By yourNEWS Media Staff
The Department of Justice (DOJ), through its National Institute of Justice (NIJ), has allocated nearly $1 million to Clemson University in South Carolina to support a project aimed at tracking the spread of misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation (MDM) online. This initiative is part of the Biden administration’s broader efforts to address what it perceives as the dangers posed by the spread of false information on the internet, particularly in the context of political events and the potential for violent extremism.
According to the grant announcement, the project, titled “Networks and Pathways of Violent Extremism: Effectiveness of Mis/Disinformation Campaigns,” will focus on the real-time mapping of MDM campaigns related to contentious public events. Clemson researchers are tasked with developing algorithms to detect the creation and spread of MDM campaigns, analyze the characteristics of events that trigger such campaigns, and study the profiles of organizations and individuals involved in disseminating MDM.
The project’s goal is to create an online dashboard featuring an MDM tracker that will identify specific linguistic characteristics associated with misinformation outbreaks. The tracker aims to provide insights into the behaviors of those who adopt, ignore, or disseminate MDM. This effort is framed as an attempt to prevent violent extremism by understanding and mitigating the impact of misinformation campaigns on the public discourse.
Critics, however, express concerns over potential political bias and censorship, given the current administration’s funding of the project and the perceived left-leaning tendencies of academia. The fear is that conservative language and viewpoints might be unfairly flagged as misinformation, continuing trends observed in social media censorship campaigns.
This initiative is part of a larger governmental focus on combating misinformation, which has seen significant investment in various projects aimed at addressing misinformation related to topics such as COVID-19, racial health disparities, and science. Despite the official disbandment of the Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board following public backlash, federal funding continues to support efforts to monitor and counteract misinformation.
The revelation of a government misinformation scheme by a congressional probe last summer, involving the FBI and a Ukrainian intelligence agency’s efforts to censor American speech, adds to the controversy surrounding these initiatives. With the presidential election looming and concerns about the administration’s use of public funds to control information, the Clemson University project represents the latest in a series of moves that have raised questions about the balance between fighting misinformation and protecting free speech.
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