TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis has written a letter to Elon Musk requesting the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) audit what he calls “censorship grants” made federally to some public universities.
Patronis said he has yet to receive responses for each records request he made in September inquiring about the use of taxpayer money at public universities in Florida for NewsGuard Technologies, Inc.; Global Disinformation Index; Global Engagement Center; and Graphika Technologies, Inc., zeroing in on NewsGuard invoices from the University of Central Florida and the University of Florida that he claims are “clear indications of larger concerns.”
The state CFO tied the invoices to grants made through the U.S. Department of Defense “and government entities that partner with USAID, such as the National Science Foundation,” suggesting Musk narrow his search to keywords such as “misinformation,” “disinformation,” “narrative” and “undesirable content” while promising him a “highly fruitful” search.
Patronis wrote that UCF’s $13,500 purchasing order for a NewsGuard licensing agreement in 2022 listed the name of a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) research project which matched that of a $500,000 DARPA award for the university’s College of Engineering and Computer Science.
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NewsGuard Technologies Inc. is a data analysis company which bills itself as “a strictly nonpartisan organization with investors and leadership from across the political spectrum” that uses “a transparent and apolitical approach” in its review process to do such things as identify misinformation and conduct reliability ratings for news outlets, as stated on its website.
NewsGuard’s data are used by top AI companies, search engines, news aggregators, and other technology companies to build platforms that provide consumers with reliable information and avoid spreading unreliable information. They enable brands to advertise safely on reliable news sources while avoiding brand-safety risk. Researchers use NewsGuard’s data to study broader trends in online information reliability, and defense-industry analysts rely on NewsGuard’s data to identify and defend against hostile foreign information operations targeting democracies worldwide.
www.newsguardtech.com/about-newsguard/ (excerpt)
UCF’s purchasing order mentioned “Modeling Influence Pathways” (MIPs) and states a reduced price was negotiated for a year of NewsGuard’s services, which were expected to accelerate research.
The MIPs term refers to the use of artificial-intelligence technologies for the following goals, according to DARPA:
- Connecting various identified influence messaging flows across platforms
- Learning, mapping, and modeling which pathways are used by what types of information
- Discovering patterns that characterize these pathways
Further, the DARPA webpage framed MIPS research as building on “influence pathways,” which it describes as “the dynamic means by which coordinated influence messaging flows across online and traditional broadcast (’offline’) media platforms and communities.”
“For example, in the 1980s, disinformation that AIDS was a U.S. bioweapon spread from less reputable newspapers to more reputable ones as interest in the story grew,” the webpage states. “(...) MIPs complements maturing capabilities for identification of misinformation, disinformation, and manipulated information with better mapping and understanding of the pathways used to disseminate and amplify that information. These pathways are not static but rather adapt to changes in the information ecosystem in response to emerging platforms, increasing platform moderation or censorship, or new types of messaging.”
The invoice for UF, dated October 2020, was for $7,500. In Patronis’ letter, he mentions an accompanying licensing agreement states NewsGuard’s services would “help consumers distinguish legitimate news and information websites from those that provide unreliable or false information.”
While these two examples may seem small, they are clear indications of larger concerns. I strongly believe that an audit of federal grants to universities using the above keywords will reveal millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded censorship research. President Trump has said, “If we don’t have free speech, then we don’t have a free country.” He is absolutely right, and I urge DOGE to continue its work on behalf of the American People.
Florida CFO Jimmy Patronis' letter to Elon Musk, Feb. 6, 2025 (excerpt)
None of what Musk posted and reposted to his X account on Wednesday mentioned the letter, yet much of it railed against the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), which is currently experiencing a drastic slash to its workforce while in DOGE’s reticle. Many of the posts linked to or mentioned sources raising alarm about USAID’s reported funding for journalists and media outlets before then launching into hypotheses — “This is how they laundered the lies,” “The ‘news’ is fake and they are all just govt paid actors” and so on.
For Politico’s part — being one of the outlets swept up after recent, relevant remarks from Musk and President Donald Trump — CEO Goli Sheikholeslami and Editor-in-Chief John Harris issued a statement Wednesday to say it is a privately-owned company that has never received any government funding and instead has been following through on subscriptions by some government agencies.
“Government agencies that subscribe do so through standard public procurement processes — just like any other tool they buy to work smarter and be more efficient. This is not funding. It is a transaction — just as the government buys research, equipment, software and industry reports,” the statement reads. " Some online voices are deliberately spreading falsehoods. Let’s be clear: POLITICO has no financial dependence on the government and no hidden agenda. We cover politics and policy — that’s our job.”
Read Patronis’ letter below:
Letter to Musk by Brandon Hogan on Scribd
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