The recent revelation that genetic data from over 20,000 U.S. children was misused to promote discredited race science is an appalling breach of trust.

This data—collected by the NIH’s Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study—was supposed to be used to advance health research, not to fuel fringe pseudoscience claiming genetic superiority by race.

The misuse of this data has already led to at least 16 unscientific, racially charged publications, and the information has been cited by white nationalist platforms and AI tools like Grok and ChatGPT. This has real-world consequences—reinforcing discrimination, misinformation, and hate.

The NIH’s own safeguards failed. A known bad-faith researcher manipulated the system to gain access and upload the data to an unapproved foreign lab. Families were never informed, and there has still been no full public accounting or real reform.

We call on Congress and the Trump administration to:

• Launch a full, independent investigation into how this data was accessed and used.
• Mandate immediate notification to affected families.
• Establish stronger safeguards and penalties to prevent future abuses.
• Ban the use of taxpayer-funded genetic data in stigmatizing or pseudoscientific research.

Data given in trust should never be weaponized against children and communities of color. Sign this petition to demand oversight, accountability, and protection from modern-day eugenics.