Where The Money Went: USG Funding To Counter-Mis/Disinformation Initiatives

The liber-net non-profit has created a database of US government awards for initiatives related to mis-dis-and-malinformation and content control, spanning from 2010 to the present day. The database includes 867 awards made between 2016-2024, totaling nearly $1.5 billion. The majority of the awards went to US-based initiatives, with around $318 million received by US recipients, dwarfing the next country, Kazakhstan, at $20 million. Only around $187 million of the total awards left the US, which is a small fraction of the roughly $6.7 trillion annual federal budget. The data shows that American organisations are still the main recipients of the awards, receiving 220 of the 867 awards made. The awards were broken down by region, with Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltic states being the main focus areas outside of the US. The topics that received funding included vaccine misinformation, election security, and social media monitoring, among others. The awards were also classified by the types of activities they entailed, such as conferences, research, or technology development. The top awardees by dollar amount and by the number of individual awards were also identified, with the CDC Foundation receiving an $80 million award. The database provides a detailed look at where the money went and which organisations received the most funding, offering insights into the US government's efforts to combat mis-dis-and-malinformation.