Sen. Cruz Demands Answers on Taxpayer-Funded Censorship

Press Release

1. Research Security Guardrails for Fundamental Research. Since 1985, our
collaborations in fundamental research with other countries have been completely open,
unregulated, and unprotected. For this kind of research, we have put no restrictions on datasharing or with whom research is done. Of concern, China has been able to leverage the
openness of the U.S. research system and acquire technologies and know-how critical to U.S.
national security and competitiveness. U.S. researchers on federal research grants for R&D in
cutting edge technologies are concurrently collaborating with China on fundamental research
projects.

a. Do you support putting security guardrails around fundamental research, including
restrictions on data-sharing?

2. National Science Foundation (NSF) Grant for Journalist Therapy. In September 2022,
the NSF began dispersing a $5 million award to the George Washington University to create a
therapy toolkit for journalists targeted by "misinformation-driven harassment campaigns."1

a. Please explain in detail how this award advances the NSF's statutory mission "to promote
the progress of science."

3. NSF Engagement in Censorship Projects. During your testimony, you made the
following statement: "I want to say one thing very categorically, we do not -- NSF does not
engage in censorship. We do not regulate any content and engage with anybody who also does
so." You then stated: "We are not in the business of censorship. We are not in the business of
controlling content." However, a cursory examination of NSF grants directly contradicts your
claim that NSF does not engage with anybody who regulates content. For example, since fiscal
year 2021, NSF has funded over 100 academic projects that are aimed at supposedly reducing
"mis-, dis-, and mal-information," much of which is simply content that the progressive left does
not agree with.

a. Define "censorship."
b. Define "regulate […] content."
c. Define "controlling content."
d. Define "engage" in the context of your statement above.
1 See USA Spending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2230683_4900

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e. Define "in the business of" in the context of your statement above.

4. NSF Grants with First Amendment Implications. For each of the following awards,
please provide the section of NSF's statutory mandate that the award fulfills and a "yes" or "no"
answer as to whether NSF believes the awarding of government funds for the project is
consistent with the First Amendment. For awards to which you answered "yes," please provide
any documentation or analysis NSF conducted to verify that the project would not infringe on
lawful speech. For awards to which you answered "no," indicate whether you will reevaluate and
possibly rescind the award.

a. $5 million ongoing award to the University of Washington.
i."[S]olutions must not only provide the public with skills for determining the
truthfulness of claims, but must also provide resources for addressing the
social and emotional impacts of misinformation. [This project] will also
design and implement a socio-technical platform that supports digital literacy
interventionists."2

b. $5 million ongoing award to the University of Wisconsin.
i."[T]his project is a dynamic and flexible digital dashboard that will help end
users… (1) identify trending misinformation networks on social media
platforms… (2) strategically correct misinformation." "[B]y the end of phase
II, Course Correct intends to have further developed the digital dashboard in
ways that could ultimately be adopted by other end users such as public
health organizations, election administration officials (emphasis added),
and commercial outlets."3

c. $5 million ongoing award to the George Washington University.
i."[T]his project addresses the links between two significant problems
impacting trust in contemporary communication systems: (1) the broad and
rapid spread of misinformation and (2) abuse and harassment directed at
members of expert communities" and "create[s] a rapid-response sociotechnical system that supports journalists and other experts facing online
abuse and harassment."4

d. $505,017 ongoing award to the State University of New York.
i."[T]his project aims to address these challenges by transitioning a set of
algorithms, software frameworks, and system designs out of the research lab

2 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2230616_4900
3 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2230692_4900
4 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2230683_4900

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into the hands of active practitioners to help identify and mitigate information
manipulation (misinformation and dis-information)."5

e. $441,200 ongoing award to the University of Utah.
i."[T]o address these challenges, this project combines the complementary
information processing strengths of humans and computation to transform the
efficiency, effectiveness, and scale of fact-checking. The project can enable
fact-checkers to spot misinformation early, prioritize effort, and unify the
various tools and techniques used for fact-checking."6

f. $396,000 ongoing award to New York University.
i."[T]o address these challenges, this project combines the complementary
information processing strengths of humans and computation to transform the
efficiency, effectiveness, and scale of fact-checking. The project can enable
fact-checkers to spot misinformation early, prioritize effort, and unify the
various tools and techniques used for fact-checking."7

g. $336,664 ongoing award to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
i."[U]nderstanding how information flows and its impact on human behavior is
important for determining how to protect society from the effects of
misinformation, propaganda, and "fake news". This project traces how
information spreads on social media channels and how ideas, opinions, and
beliefs change as they spread."8

h. $330,555 ongoing award to the University of Florida.
i."[D]espite decades of research, misinformation remains a serious threat as
most technical mitigation methods focus on improving detection accuracy and
fail to consider social and emotional perspectives. This project assists in
enhancing information integrity by identifying influencing communities,
agents, and culturally resonant information to identify tipping points in public
dialogue on controversial issues and offering venues of user-centric
interventions at scale."9

i. $225,669 ongoing award to Boston University.
i."[T]his project aims to address these challenges by transitioning a set of
algorithms, software frameworks, and system designs out of the research lab

5 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2247867_4900
6 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2154123_4900
7 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2154119_4900
8 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2214216_4900
9 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2323794_4900

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into the hands of active practitioners to help identify and mitigate information
manipulation (misinformation and dis-information)."10

j. $224,033 ongoing award to the Illinois Institute of Technology.
i."[T]he project aims to study the scientific underpinnings of disinformation
and develop a computational framework to attribute, detect, and explain
disinformation to inform policymaking."11

k. $220,000 ongoing award to Syracuse University.
i."[T]he project aims to study the scientific underpinnings of disinformation
and develop a computational framework to attribute, detect, and explain
disinformation to inform policymaking."12

l. $217,000 ongoing award to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
i."[D]espite decades of research, misinformation remains a serious threat as
most technical mitigation methods focus on improving detection accuracy and
fail to consider social and emotional perspectives. This project assists in
enhancing information integrity by identifying influencing communities,
agents, and culturally resonant information to identify tipping points in public
dialogue on controversial issues and offering venues of user-centric
interventions at scale."13

m. $120,008 ongoing award to the Georgia Tech Research Corporation.
i."[T]he general approach is to leverage the social responses that ordinary users
make on online posts, such as supporting, questioning, disbelieving, or
countering claims, to robustly detect misinformation and suggest corrective
responses."14

n. $115,967 ongoing award to the University of California, Santa Barbara.
i."[T]he project aims to study the scientific underpinnings of disinformation
and develop a computational framework to attribute, detect, and explain
disinformation to inform policymaking."15

o. $67,380 ongoing award to the Pennsylvania State University.
i."[T]he experience of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need to
develop strong relationships and trust between the research community and
these various constituencies before a crisis. The workshop will be organized

10 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2247868_4900
11 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2241068_4900
12 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2241070_4900
13 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2323795_4900
14 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2239879_4900
15 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2241069_4900

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around 3 sessions: 1) case studies of innovation and misinformation in focal
pathogens and "gain of function" research, 2) communicating novelty and
risk, 3) tailoring communication to different audiences… including lay public,
agency, and policymakers."16

p. $38,515 ongoing award to the University of Houston.
i."[T[his…project is the development of an online dashboard with
misinformation forecast trends and analysis to help address the
misinformation endemic in America."17

q. $21,003 ongoing award to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks.
i."[T]hough a small body of prior research on health misinformation exists,
there is a pressing need to gain a better understanding of how to detect,
monitor and understand misinformation and its impact on population health
during emergencies. The project takes a one health approach, documenting
perspectives of public health officials and healthcare providers on
misinformation."18

r. $16,014 ongoing award to the University of Oklahoma.
i."[T]he development of a software platform that may be integrated into crisis
management systems such as public health (WHO, CDC), emergency
management (FEMA), and transportation (DOT) agencies to facilitate the
transmission of correct information and provide the option to notify social
media providers of identified misinformation" (emphasis added). "It is
becoming increasingly important for government agencies, policy makers, and
emergency management officials to be capable of addressing major crisis
scenarios under acute time and resource constraints. Using social media
platforms more efficiently would be a critical step towards this vision."19

s. $11,485 completed award to Texas State University.
i."[T]his…project is the development of an online dashboard with
misinformation forecast trends and analysis to help address the
misinformation endemic in America."20

16 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2319012_4900
17 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2309846_4900
18 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2309906_4900
19 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2222940_4900
20 See USASpending, NSF, https://www.usaspending.gov/award/ASST_NON_2223343_4900

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