(IntegrityPress.org) – Clemson University in South Carolina will be getting nearly $1 million in funding from the DOJ (Department of Justice) to fight against all types of online disinformation (MDM). Despite claims from the university that their research will be completely unbiased, some opponents argue this project may be used to suppress free speech online.
Funded by a grant from the Department of Justice’s National Institute of Justice, Clemson’s project intends to map the real-time spread of online disinformation campaigns that form around public events. The researchers aim to create an online dashboard featuring an MDM tracker for users to compare public political events with their intended meaning and with what is inaccurately being portrayed.
The grant’s purpose, according to Clemson, is to assist policymakers, law enforcement, and communities in understanding the operation, meaning, and impact of disinformation campaigns. This involves identifying events vulnerable to them and investigating what people, ideologies, or organizations might be behind them.
The lead investigator, Ayse Lokmanoglu, is an assistant professor in Clemson’s communications department, specializing in the study of all types of terrorist groups, mostly domestic. This includes Islamic groups and White Supremacist groups.
Arie Perliger, one of the researchers on the project, hopes to make most of the research process fully automated to make sure that there are no biases. He is a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts and the author of “American Zealots”, a book that explores white supremacists, anti-government groups, and other types of outside groups.
The team also plans to use tools specifically designed to reduce researcher bias, ensuring that the research will be as objective as possible. Perliger acknowledged that the definition of a “disinformation campaign” might be refined during later stages of the project.
The topic of “misinformation” and “disinformation” is a hot one, and the U.S. government and the mainstream media seem to be in lock-step. Americans have noticed that statements or facts that contradict leftist views on policy, or even on verifiable facts, are quickly labeled “misinformation” by both news outlets and U.S. government bodies.
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