Misinformation research is buckling under GOP legal attacks

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The escalating campaign - led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and other Republicans - has cast a pall over programs that study not just political disinformation but also the quality of medical information online.

Rep. Jim Jordan has issued subpoenas and demands for researchers' communications with the government and social media platforms as part of a larger congressional probe into the Biden administration's alleged collusion with Big Tech. Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford.

The National Institutes of Health froze a $150 million program intended to advance the communication of medical information, citing regulatory and legal threats. Physicians told The Post that they had planned to use the grants to fund projects on noncontroversial topics such as nutritional guidelines and not just politically charged issues such as vaccinations that have been the focus of the conservative allegations.

Interviews with more than two dozen professors, government officials, physicians, nonprofits and research funders, many of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss their internal deliberations freely, describe an escalating campaign emerging as online propaganda is rising. Joe Biden takes off his mask before addressing reporters Nov. 5, 2020, in Wilmington, Del. Washington Post photp by Demetrius Freeman.

Disinformation scholars, many of whom tracked both covid-19 and 2020 election-rigging conspiracies, also have faced an onslaught of public records requests and lawsuits from conservative sympathizers echoing Jordan’s probe. Billionaire Elon Musk’s X has sued a nonprofit advocacy group, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, accusing it of improperly accessing large amounts of data through someone else’s license - a practice that researchers say is common.

“Missouri v. Biden is the most important First Amendment case in a generation, which is why we’re taking it to the nation’s highest court,” he said. Signs at Dulles International Airport in March 2020 inform travelers how to help prevent the spread of respiratory diseases. Washington Post photo by Jahi Chikwendiu.

“NIH recognizes the critical importance of health communications science in building trust in public health information and continues to fund this important area of research,” she said. In March 2021, the group released a nearly 300-page report documenting how false election fraud claims rippled across the internet, coalescing into the #StopTheSteal movement that fomented the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol. In its final report, the coalition noted that Meta, X , TikTok and YouTube labeled, removed or suppressed just over a third of the posts the researchers flagged.

 

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Misinformation research is buckling under GOP legal attacksThe escalating campaign — led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and other Republicans — has cast a pall over programs that study not just political disinformation but also the quality of medical information online.
Source: washingtonpost - 🏆 95. / 72 Read more »