GDI has come under scrutiny from Republican lawmakers and watchdogs following multiple Washington Examiner reports starting in February on its covert operation of feeding conservative website blacklists to advertisers with the intent of shutting down disfavored speech. The self-styled British “disinformation” tracker steered $90,810 to UT-Austin’s Global Disinformation Lab for a December 2022 report that alleged the “riskiest” websites were the New York Post, the Blaze, RealClearPolitics, and other conservative websites, according to contracts obtained by the Washington Examiner. …

A separate budget document obtained by the Washington Examiner shows that GDI’s project costs were $90,810. Dickerson received $1,922, and $974 was paid to Kiril Avramov, co-director of the disinformation lab, records show.

Meanwhile, the bulk of payments went to undergraduates and graduate students for 12 weeks. Their names were redacted by UT-Austin in documents provided to the Washington Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act.

[Yes, by all means, let’s have the US government fund secret censorship programs based on data generated by teenagers with extra time on their hands. — Ed]