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Category: Information, Memory and Manipulation ×
Attack target: Public Health ×
Trait: Independent media is starved while state-aligned outlets thrive ×
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Tier 1 carried by a primary record
Corroborated 2+ independent news desks
Every result is verified and democracy-related.
Open an event to see its evidence. Attack and trait tags link to their definitions
Apr 18, 2025 Trump administration replaced the Covid.gov public health website with content promoting the 'lab leak' theory and criticizing officials Tier 1 · Primary Information, Memory and Manipulation
Converting a neutral public health information resource into partisan messaging undermines citizen access to factual health information.
Independently corroborated by2 independent news desks
Supporting reportingSurfacings — do not carry alone
Supporting reports
- Trump administration replaces Covid.gov with "lab leak" theory website and criticism of Fauci — The Trump White House replaced Covid.gov, which previously provided Americans with information about free Covid-19 tests, vaccines, treatments, and long Covid resources, with a website promoting the "lab leak" theory and containing criticism of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the WHO, and New York state leadership. The new site argues that NIH procedures for funding research are "deficient" and "pose a serious threat" to public health and national security, and claims the NIH "fostered an environment that promoted evading federal record keeping laws."
Verified: Tier 1 primary record
Week 13 – 2025-04-12–2025-04-18
wk13_IM_012
Mar 14, 2025 Trump signed executive order defunding the US Agency for Global Media Tier 1 · Primary Information, Memory and Manipulation
Eliminating funding for Voice of America and Radio Free Asia endangers journalists abroad and diminishes US soft power promoting press freedom globally.
Supporting reportingSurfacings — do not carry alone
Supporting reports
- Trump administration defunds US Agency for Global Media — On 14 March, Donald Trump issued an executive order to defund the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), which oversees Voice of America and provides grants to Radio Free Asia and other international news agencies. The agency employed approximately 3,500 staff with an $886m annual budget. Foreign workers on visas face deportation to authoritarian countries where they risk imprisonment or death. Two VoA contributors are imprisoned in Myanmar and Vietnam; four Radio Free Asia contributors are imprisoned in Vietnam. Federal workers, journalists, and labor unions filed a lawsuit seeking to reverse the shutdown.
- Trump signed executive order rescinding 17 additional Biden-era executive actions and memoranda — President Trump signed an executive order on March 14, 2025, rescinding 17 additional executive actions, memoranda, and determinations issued by the Biden administration. The rescissions include orders on COVID-19 response, federal contractor minimum wage, LGBTQ+ human rights abroad, apprenticeships, worker empowerment, tribal self-determination, biotechnology innovation, and various Defense Production Act determinations related to infant formula, solar modules, insulation, electrolyzers, and heat pumps. The order states the rescissions are necessary to "restore common sense to the Federal Government and unleash the potential of American citizens."
- White House issued executive order directing elimination of seven federal agencies and components — The White House issued an executive order on March 14, 2025, directing the elimination of non-statutory components and functions of seven federal entities: the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, the United States Agency for Global Media, the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Institute of Museum and Library Services, the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness, the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund, and the Minority Business Development Agency. The order requires each entity to reduce to minimum statutory functions within 7 days and directs OMB to reject funding requests inconsistent with the order.
Attacks
Verified: Tier 1 primary record
Week 8 – 2025-03-08–2025-03-14
wk08_IM_015