The Trump administration has cut off taxpayer funding for dozens of academic researchers tied to so-called “misinformation” studies—triggering panic and outrage from those who had once used federal dollars to shape public discourse online.

The National Science Foundation (NSF) confirmed Friday that it is terminating grant awards tied to “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation,” in accordance with President Donald Trump’s executive order titled Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship. The order, signed on day one of Trump’s return to office, bans federal agencies from supporting speech suppression programs “under whatever name they appear.”

The NSF stated it will no longer “support research with the goal of combating ‘misinformation’ … that could be used to infringe on the constitutionally protected speech rights of any American citizen.” It also noted that programs promoting DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) were similarly eliminated for being “not aligned” with the agency’s priorities.

Reaction from the academic censorship crowd was swift—and furious.

“I got an email yesterday afternoon that my NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship was terminated,” posted Maddy Jalbert of the University of Washington’s Center for an Informed Public (CIP). “My grant focused on testing interventions to address online misinformation and I was 8 months into a two year appointment.”

The CIP had previously partnered with CISA during the 2020 election as part of the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP)—a now-infamous public-private effort that flagged online content for removal or throttling by social media companies, including posts from conservatives and right-leaning media.

University of Wisconsin professor Mike Wagner, whose “Course Correct” initiative was awarded $750,000 in 2021 and $5 million in 2022 to help journalists detect and combat online misinformation, also lashed out.

He called the cuts a “Friday Night Massacre of accurate information,” adding, “We have a federal government that does not consider the verifiable truth a priority.”

Vanderbilt professor Lisa Fazio, who led a grant titled “How False Beliefs Form & How to Correct Them,” claimed her team was one of “dozens” affected. “My heart breaks for the junior scholars whose careers will be the most affected,” she said.

Kate Starbird, also at the University of Washington and a former member of CISA’s disinformation advisory committee, accused the Trump White House of operating as a “regime.” She raged on Bluesky: “Not surprising that an administration that rose to power on the spread of bullshit and propaganda is terminating the funding of researchers studying these phenomena.”

Starbird added that “existing grants” were now being canceled across multiple universities. Her team had previously advised federal agencies on how to tackle online rumors and “propaganda” ahead of the 2022 midterms—recommendations that, in practice, led to government agencies coordinating with tech platforms to suppress dissenting views.

This isn’t the first major blow to the censorship-industrial complex under Trump’s second term.

Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the State Department’s Global Engagement Center (GEC)—which was involved in funding and directing “anti-disinformation” campaigns around the world—would be permanently shut down. The GEC had previously worked closely with the same universities and researchers now seeing their grants pulled.

Trump’s executive order is clear: taxpayer money will no longer fund efforts to suppress constitutionally protected speech, whether they’re labeled “fact-checking,” “safety,” or “academic research.”

While many on the Left are portraying the NSF’s move as an attack on science, conservatives argue it’s a long-overdue correction. For years, institutions like the CIP and EIP worked with federal agencies to monitor, flag, and censor political speech online—often targeting Republican voices in the name of fighting “disinformation.”

As House Judiciary investigations have already shown, many of these programs were little more than taxpayer-funded censorship operations wrapped in academic credentials.

Now, the gravy train is over. And as the Trump administration tightens its grip on the agencies that fueled this censorship ecosystem, the meltdown from university researchers is only likely to grow. But for millions of Americans, the message is simple: free speech is back. And no amount of rebranded censorship will survive it.