Tom Coniglia submitted this link to an article on FrontpageMag.com that describes a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant to a data-mining project dubbed “Truthy” that cost taxpayers nearly $1 million.
The grant was ICES: Large Meme Diffusion Through Mass Social Media (Aware #1101743) and was intended, as per the grant’s abstract to “. . . create a web service open to the public for monitoring trends, bursts, and suspicious memes. This service could mitigate the diffusion of false and misleading ideas, detect hate speech and subversive propaganda, and assist in the preservation of open debate.”
That those with a vested political position seek the authority to declare what speech is “hate” and “subversive propaganda” in the name of open debate is about as Orwellian as it gets.
The name “Truthy” comes from political satirist and Democrat Party supporter Stephen Colbert. The site itself targeted messages and commentary connected to the words “Tea Party” “GOP” and “conservative,” according to a letter from Congressman Lamar Smith (R-TX21) to the NSF.
And Smith wants answers.
And he — along with the rest of us — deserve them.
Smith notes that some have had social media accounts terminated because of “Truthy”.
If government agencies are seen taking sides by much, if not most, of America, then much, if not most, of America will see the government as the enemy.
This is a consequence that would be readily apparent to a kindergartner, and it is a bad thing.
To have a unified nation, government partisanship must become a big taboo. A good, but small, first step would be in exposing those who approved this grant and removing them from their jobs and banning them from any other government job, forever.
