To prohibit the obligation or expenditure of Federal funds for disinformation research grants, and for other purposes.

This bill would stop the federal government from paying for certain research programs about online false information and secure communications. It says no federal funds can be used for disinformation research grants, the National Science Foundation’s “Secure and Trustworthy Cyberspace” program, or the NSF Convergence Accelerator’s Track F on “Trust and Authenticity in Communications Systems”. The NSF programs it targets currently support work on cybersecurity and privacy topics like cryptography, hardware security, information integrity, and tools to prevent or reduce harms from manipulated communications, such as misinformation.

Key points:

• Who is affected: Universities, researchers, and labs that apply for federal grants in cybersecurity, online trust, and misinformation research.
• What changes: Federal funding for these specific grants and programs would be cut off.
• Day-to-day impact: Fewer federally funded projects in areas like secure systems, privacy, and tools to detect or limit misinformation, which could reduce new research, student funding, and related tools or technologies.