NEWS
Federal Communications Commission
445 12
th
Street, S.W.
Washington, DC  20554
This is an unofficial announcement of Commission action.  Release of the full text of a Commission order constitutes official action.
See MCI v. FCC, 515 F.2d 385 (D.C. Cir. 1974).
News Media Information 202- 418-0500
Internet: http://www.fcc.gov
TTY: 1-888-835-5322
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NEWS MEDIA CONTACT:
October 23, 2014 Matthew Berry, 202-418-2005
Email: matthew.berry@fcc.gov
STATEMENT OF COMMISSIONER AJIT PAI
ON HOUSE SCIENCE COMMITTEE INVESTIGATION OF NSF “TRUTHY” GRANT
I applaud Chairman Lamar Smith and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology 
for launching an investigation into the National Science Foundation’s nearly $1 million grant to the 
“Truthy” project.  In its own words, Truthy aims “to detect political smears, astroturfing, misinformation, 
and other social pollution” on Twitter.
1
  Its stated end goal is to “mitigate the diffusion of false and 
misleading ideas, [and] detect hate speech and subversive propaganda.”
2
Among other things, Truthy 
also uses taxpayer dollars to evaluate the “partisanship” of Americans’ Twitter accounts.
The federal government has no business getting involved in a project that aspires to be the arbiter 
of political statements made on social media or assesses individuals’ political leanings.  Furthermore, this 
wasteful project diverts scarce federal funds away from research serving a genuine scientific need.  I 
commend the House Science Committee for performing necessary oversight and standing up for the 
ideals of free speech and open, democratic discourse.
                                                          
1
http://truthy.indiana.edu/about/.
2
http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1101743&HistoricalAwards=false.