The U.S. government funded various online censorship tools, some of which went missing after President Donald Trump took office. Others, however, are still operating today — potentially limiting what Americans see online, especially regarding health issues.
The National Science Foundation incubated a host of programs through its Convergence Accelerator to fight online speech deemed “misinformation,” many of which recently dropped off the map, as The Federalist previously reported. But some of these projects continue today — adopted by left-leaning institutions and dedicated to controlling online speech.
The censorship projects still operating include Chime In, hosted by the University of Wisconsin-Madison; the Analysis and Response Toolkit for Trust, housed in leftist nonprofit Discourse Labs; and Expert Voices Together, adopted by the left-wing group Right To Be.
Chime In
The tool Chime In was previously called “Course Correct.” UW-Madison developed Course Correct as an anti-“misinformation” dashboard for journalists, as The Federalist previously reported. The NSF awarded the project $5 million starting in 2022. According to the grant description, it hoped to “scale Course Correct into local, national, and international newsrooms…”
The program was renamed to Chime In “more than a year ago,” university spokesman John Lucas previously told The Federalist. Chime In is housed in UW-Madison’s Center for Communication and Civic Renewal, and aims to “counter vaccine hesitancy.”
As The College Fix reported in 2023, the program conducted “pilot testing… on issues including: raw milk, genetically modified foods, vaccine safety, fluoride in water, Covid-19, and sunscreen safety.” The project could also collude with media to manipulate the public narrative.
“Once journalists evaluate the size and reach of these misinformation networks detected by the dashboard, they work with Course Correct staff to develop and rapidly test messages that will reduce the flow of misinformation,” reads the project’s NSF description. “Course Correct will seed the affected misinformation network with sponsored social media posts…”
The Federalist obtained a screen recording of the Chime In software. The program helps users create messaging “experiments,” creating their own target groups, such as “vaccine skeptics.” Users can push their narratives on different platforms such as X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, then request funding for these campaigns. Finally, the tool enables users to draft specific posts to be promoted across social media.
Hellbound and Down 