The AI Weapon of Censorship By James Reed
Nation First is back in circulation, and has reported on a leaked document from the US National Science Foundation (NSF). The document outlines a project for the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for the purposes of large-scale online censorship. The Interim Staff Report of the Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government has summarised the NSF actions as follows:
"In the name of combatting alleged misinformation regarding COVID-19 and the 2020 election, NSF has been issuing multi-million-dollar grants to university and non-profit research teams. The purpose of these taxpayer-funded projects is to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-powered censorship and propaganda tools that can be used by governments and Big Tech to shape public opinion by restricting certain viewpoints or promoting others."
This monitoring of critics of the Covid regime, and the blacklisting of organisations opposed to the vaxxes and mandates, was completely contrary to the constitutional right to free speech, but it was done anyway. The Biden Whitehouse was involved in forcing social media companies such as Facebook to censor information, which was contrary to its interests, so the matter goes deep. The power of AI to produce mass censorship is an irresistible tool that governments are using and will continue to use, unless a mass movement of revolt can stop them.
https://nationfirst.substack.com/p/silenced-by-robots
Fast forward to today, and a leaked document showcases that the U.S. government agency, the National Science Foundation (NSF), has already begun funding research on how to use automated tools to censor online speech "at scale."
Our misinformation service helps policymakers at platforms who want to . . . push responsibility for difficult judgments to someone outside the company . . . by externalizing the difficult responsibility of censorship.
— Speaker's notes from the University of Michigan's first pitch to the NSF about the use of A.I. censorship tools.
The Interim Staff Report of the Committee on the Judiciary and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government states that:
In the name of combatting alleged misinformation regarding COVID-19 and the 2020 election, NSF has been issuing multi-million-dollar grants to university and non-profit research teams. The purpose of these taxpayer-funded projects is to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-powered censorship and propaganda tools that can be used by governments and Big Tech to shape public opinion by restricting certain viewpoints or promoting others.
And mind you, they were doing this covertly.
The NSF was mindful of ensuring its operations remained hidden from the public.
They even kept track of individuals who criticised the agency and its work.
It also considered blacklisting certain media outlets that were sticking their nose a bit too much in what the agency was up to.
The NSF's actions stand as a direct violation of the U.S. Constitution.
Of course, nothing will be done about it unless the common public.
The interim staff report highlighted other instances of constitutional violations relating to the First Amendment by the Deep State, including actively intervening in the 2020 elections contested between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
The report noted:
The First Amendment prohibits the government from "abridging the freedom of speech." Thus, "any law or government policy that reduces that freedom on the [social media] platforms . . . violates the First Amendment." To inform potential legislation, the Committee and Select Subcommittee have been investigating the Executive Branch's collusion with third-party intermediaries, including universities, non-profits, and businesses, to censor protected speech on social media. The Committee and Subcommittee have uncovered serious violations of the First Amendment throughout the Executive Branch, including:
The Biden White House directly coercing large social media companies, such as Facebook, to censor true information, memes, and satire, eventually leading Facebook to change its content moderation policies;
Stanford's Election Integrity Partnership (EIP)—created at the request of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)—working with the federal government to flag thousands of links and submit recommendations directly to large social media platforms to censor Americans' online speech in the lead-up to the 2020 U.S. election; and
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) harassing Elon Musk's Twitter (now X) because of Musk's commitment to free speech, even going so far as to target certain journalists by name.
The concerning trends that occur in the U.S.A. are often mirrored in other Western nations.
Just two decades ago, governments started to follow America's lead in spying on their own citizens, and now they might follow the U.S.A. in using A.I. to violate our freedom of expression.
With the possibility of censors now being machines, it opens up a realm of a far more totalitarian suppression of our rights.
Humans have a conscience and can be held accountable.
An aspiring totalitarian would have to spend considerable effort to mitigate this, hence why totalitarianism rarely is able to sustain itself; human goodness ultimately prevails.
Machines are efficient, unquestioning, and unaccountable, and their use ushers a far greater challenge to freedom than any before in history."
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