Science Agency Scours Sites To Delete Banned Words

The Washington Post reports:

At the National Science Foundation, staff have been combing through thousands of active science research projects, alongside a list of keywords, to determine if they include activities that violate executive orders President Donald Trump issued in his first week in office. The words triggering NSF reviews provide a picture of the sievelike net being cast over the typically politically independent scientific enterprise, including words like “trauma,” “barriers,” “equity” and “excluded.”

Previously published health documents have been expunged from public-facing websites in the wake of a Jan. 29 memo from Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, and sent to all agency leaders. NSF staff must analyze the keywords within grants and determine whether they are in violation of an executive order, providing a justification if they determine they are not. For example, the word “accessibility” would be flagged if it is used in the context of DEI, but is not if it is about data accessibility.

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